India notifies N-separation plan

India has notified its separation plan in the IAEA, which formally separates India’s civilian and military nuclear establishments. The plan, announced in March 2006, has passed muster at the IAEA and India’s safeguards pact is now officially operational. This is likely to help along the negotiations for the reprocessing agreement that is currently under way between India and the US. But more than that, this will silence many non-proliferation critics in the new US administration, who have been looking at the delay as an example of Indian dithering.