NEW DELHI: India is expanding a covert uranium enrichment plant that could potentially support the development of thermonuclear weapons, a defence research group said on Friday, raising the stakes in an arms race with China and Pakistan.
New units at the Indian Rare Metals Plant would increase India's ability to produce weapons-grade uranium beyond what is needed for its planned nuclear-powered submarine fleet, IHS Janes said.
The facility, located near Mysore in southern India, could be operational by mid-2015.
"Taking into account all the enriched uranium likely to be needed by the Indian nuclear submarine fleet, there is likely to be a significant excess," Matthew Clements, editor of IHS Jane's Intelligence Review, told Reuters.
"One potential use of this would be for the development of thermonuclear weapons."
No comment was immediately available from the Indian government press office or the foreign ministry.
India, which is not a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, tested its first nuclear weapon in 1974, leading to the imposition of international sanctions that barred it from importing nuclear technology and materials.
It conducted tests again in 1998 that were followed by a similar set of tests by Pakistan.
A civil nuclear cooperation deal with the United States, sealed in 2008, exempts military facilites and stockpiles of nuclear fuel from scrutiny by the International Atomic Energy Agency. The Mysore plant is not subject to IAEA safeguards.
The exemption, granted by the administration of President George W. Bush, faced opposition from China and Pakistan, India's regional rivals, and European nations who said it would undermine efforts to control the spread of nuclear weapons.