New Delhi. Feb. 17: Nuclear scientists might be taking their concerns about the proposed Indo-US nuclear deal into the political arena.

Former Prime Minister V.P. Singh today asked the Centre to consult India’s nuclear establishment and review the Indo-US nuclear deal, virtually echoing what top nuclear scientists had said last week.

In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, he said India’s strategic interest lies in the government respecting the concerns of nuclear scientists and in keeping fast breeder reactors from the purview of the Indo-US nuclear deal.

“We are not aware of the government having made any effort to consult senior scientists with nuclear expertise, who have made the nation proud,” he said after a meeting with Adinarayan Gopalakrishnan, former head of the atomic energy regulatory board.

“If this deal is going to compromise our technological self-reliance and security interest, it should be straightaway scrapped.”

Singh has questioned the lack of adequate communication between the Centre and the nuclear establishment. “Was our nuclear programme developed in South Block?” he wondered.

He said India’s principal national interest and strategic concern should be the development of indigenous technological capability aimed at extracting energy from India’s vast reserves of thorium fuel.