NEW DELHI, JULY 15 As Prime Minister Manmohan Singh heads to the United States tomorrow, senior Indian officials are in Washington finalising the contours of a broad nuclear understanding between the two sides to be announced on Monday.

This could include a potential American facilitation of the supply of nuclear fuel for the Tarapur reactors and likely Indo-US cooperation on the development of the so-called Generation IV reactors and in nuclear fusion research.

Officials on either side are unwilling to discuss likely nuclear outcomes in Washington, but are confident that there will be some positive results to be shared with the public on Monday after Singh meets the US President George W. Bush.

Before Singh lands in Washington on Sunday, Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran is holding intensive consultations in Washington with the Bush Administration, that are expected to go into the weekend.

Underlining Delhi’s emphasis on civilian nuclear energy cooperation in the talks with Bush, Anil Kakodkar, Secretary Department of Atomic Energy, has been included in Singh’s delegation to Washington.

The Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, who is in charge of the broader energy dialogue with the US is also in the delegation. All indications are that the joint statement to be issued at the end of the Singh-Bush talks might have an explicit political commitment on the part of the United States to cooperate with India in the area of civilian nuclear energy generation.

Any talk of civilian nuclear energy cooperation with the US has been a taboo for decades until the advent of the Bush Administration. The shift away from an exclusive focus on non-proliferation in the Indo-US nuclear dialogue since 1974 to nuclear energy cooperation under Bush is in itself a political advance.

But Singh and his delegation will be looking for more. They would want Bush’s commitment on nuclear energy translated into some tangibles.

One positive signal from the Bush Administration would be a move to allow the supply of nuclear fuel to the Tarapur Atomic Power Station in Maharashtra built with US assistance in the 1960s. The US has two options. Either it could supply the fuel itself or allow others to get into the act.

The former will require Presidential waiver to the current American non-proliferation law. This would demand that President

Bush expend considerable political energy with the US Congress.

An alternative would be lifting American political objections to the sale of the fuel to India by other members of the Nuclear Suppliers Group. Russia which sold nuclear fuel to Tarapur in 2001 came under intense criticism from the Western countries including the US.

A change in the US position on Tarapur would involve American consultations with its partners in the NSG. There are some indications that the Bush Administration has been in touch with key West European countries on the question of nuclear cooperation with India.

While addressing the Tarapur problem would involve the consent of either the US Congress or the NSG partners, there are potential areas of cooperation with India that do not attract legal complications—for example, civilian nuclear energy research and development.

As part of his domestic focus on nuclear energy development Bush is promoting the development of advanced nuclear reactors, dubbed as ‘‘Generation IV.’’ These reactors are safer, more efficient, and produce less radio active waste than the present generation. They could also produce alternative fuels like Hydrogen. India is also developing its own concepts of advanced reactors and cooperation with the US would indeed be welcome.

Beyond Generation IV, India and the US could also agree to work together in the development of fusion reactors and the Thorium fission reactors.

Cooperative development of the Thorium nuclear