Washington, April 30: As Indian and US negotiators resumed talks today on the so-called 123 agreement to operationalise their nuclear deal, India’s atomic energy officials and scientists are urging a “go for broke” approach.

In a series of notes and inter-ministerial presentations as the 123 negotiations cover more areas of mutual agreement, officials of the department of atomic energy are taking the view that India has little to lose by holding out for an agreement that meets all its concerns without any exception.

They point out that the French have already begun preliminary work on developing Jaitapur in Maharashtra as a potential site for a light water reactor without waiting for the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) to end India’s exclusion from global nuclear commerce.

Similarly, the Russians are taking steps to follow up a memorandum of intent for four new reactors at Kudankulam, signed during president Vladimir Putin’s January visit to New Delhi.

Negotiations have begun on an inter-governmental agreement, which will be followed by a formal contract between Russia’s Atom Story Export and the Nuclear Power Corporation of India to carry out construction of the new units.

Like the French nuclear supplier Areva in Jaitapur, the Russian state-owned nuclear plants exporter has agreed to start preliminary work on two of the four new units in Kudankulam without waiting for the Indo-US nuclear deal to find its way into the NSG.

Atomic energy officials have also cautioned other agencies in the government involved in talks with the Americans against investing too much in the 123 agreement, so-called because it is negotiated under Section 123 of the US Atomic Energy Act.

They pointed out that the original agreement that guaranteed fuel for the Tarapur nuclear plant was also under Section 123 of this act, but US supplies were found to be unreliable and India is still paying a critical price for it.

These officials have made out a case that even if the French do not ultimately agree to set up a reactor in Jaitapur without NSG approval, the Indian nuclear industry is capable of setting up an indigenous pressurised heavy water reactor in its place.

As for the Russians, sources said, they have indicated that Moscow would find a way out of the NSG stalemate just as they did in 1998 for two reactors in Kudankulam.

Although Indian and US negotiators agreed during their round in New Delhi last month on a compromise over the testing clause in the 123 agreement, that is unlikely to satisfy nuclear scientists.

While there has been considerable convergence over the language of the agreement during the New Delhi round and a later one in Cape Town two weeks ago, there is concern that the Americans have tightened the substance of the 123 text in new areas.

The scientists believe several new formulations in the text have downgraded India into being equated with non-nuclear weapon states in conformity with Washington’s non-recognition of India’s weaponised status.

Within the ministry of external affairs, there have been several new converts against the present path of negotiations with the Americans.

The change came after a visiting Russian official made a clean breast of his view that the 123 agreement, as it is currently being negotiated, would actually place India in a third category of nations without the benefits of either the Big Five with recognised nuclear weapons or those without bombs that have signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.