India pleased with plans by US to sell it uranium

India Thursday welcome US plans to license the sale of nearly 40 metric tons of enriched uranium for a nuclear plant near Bombay. India had asked for 19.8 metric tons of fuel in September 1978 and a similar amount a year later for use in its American-built Tarapur power reactor. But the US government resisted the requests until now, while negotiating broader safeguards to prevent the spread of atomic weapons.

A State Department official in Washington said a major factor in the decision to license the sales, despite India's refusal to agree on new safeguards, was the US desire for closer ties with India in view of the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iran.