Majority of countries uphold the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty: Australia must not weaken it
only a minority of countries support the opening up of nuclear trade with countries that refuse to sign the NPT. The 118 countries of the Non-aligned Movement voiced strong objections during the NPT Review Conference in New York last year.
Gillard’s uranium sales push will have dangerous fall-out, Canberra Times, BY JIM GREEN, 16 Nov, 2011 Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s arguments in favour of uranium sales to India are dangerous and dishonest. She fails to even acknowledge the crucial problem – India’s refusal to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The NPT is the main international nuclear treaty and is routinely described by Australian political leaders as the ‘‘cornerstone’’ of the non-proliferation system. The NPT has its flaws, not least the failure of the nuclear weapons states to take seriously their disarmament obligations, but that is no reason to junk the treaty or to disregard it.
On the contrary, the NPT needs much greater support. The least we should expect is that Australia maintains its policy of requiring uranium customer countries to be NPT signatories and to take seriously their NPT obligations. Continue reading
India fires long range nuclear missile, first in its programme for intercontinental ballistic missiles
India fires its longest-range missile, capable of going deep into China, China Post, 16 Nov 11, BHUBANESHWAR, India–India on Tuesday successfully test fired one of its longest-range missiles capable of carrying a one-ton nuclear warhead deep inside China, officials said….. the nuclear-capable, two-stage missile which is powered by solid fuel was fired beyond the Bay of Bengal into the Indian Ocean. Agni means fire in Sanskrit.
“Agni-IV has a maximum range of 3,500 kilometers (2,170 miles) but this time the launch parameter was 3,000 kilometers,” the official spokesman said….. Defense ministry sources said military scientists were also giving the final shape to the 5,000-km range Agni-V, scheduled to be test-fired for the first time early next year.
India has also said it may develop an intercontinental ballistic missile….. India is among the world’s top 10 military spenders. It plans to splurge US$50 billion by 2015 to upgrade its military. It has fought three wars with rival Pakistan since their independence in 1947 and a brief but bloody border conflict with China in 1962. http://www.chinapost.com.tw/asia/india/2011/11/16/323102/India-fires.htm
Julia Gillard’s new line on uranium to India causes quite a political mess
the discomfort in some quarters about the plan was underlined yesterday when India test-fired a long-range missile, which officials said was capable of carrying a one-tonne nuclear warhead deep inside China.
Gillard’s uranium backlash The Age, Michelle Grattan, Katharine Murphy and John Watson November 16,
2011 PRIME Minister Julia Gillard’s push to sell uranium to India has triggered a fight with her party’s Left, attracted disquiet from Pakistan and infuriated Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd, who was not consulted about the change. Tensions between Ms Gillard and Mr Rudd are likely to escalate after the snub, which was made worse by Mr Rudd being in India when she made the move. Continue reading
Media self-censorship of epic documentary on climate change
Broadcasters lose their nerve over BBC’s climate change program, Environmental News Network, 15 Nov 11 The final episode of the BBC’s Frozen Planet documentary series that focuses on climate change has been canned in the US and other countries, prompting fierce criticism. All seven episodes of the multi-million pound nature series, written and presented by Sir David Attenborough, will be screened in the UK — but the final show, entitled ‘On Thin Ice’, has been shelved by several foreign TV channels, including the Discovery channel in the US.
The last programme in the series looks at the man-made threat to the environment and examines how Earth’s ice caps are changing and the likely consequences for the rest of the planet. But US audiences will not be shown the final episode, where many fear a show that promotes the theory of global warming could upset viewers.
The package of six episodes has been sold to 30 countries and networks were provided with the option to buy a seventh ‘optional extra’ episode, along with behind-the-scenes footage. The documentary series is said to be an epic portrait of two disappearing wildernesses — the Arctic and the Antarctic – before they change forever, and is already hugely popular with viewers in the UK. However, according to the BBC, ten countries have chosen not to screen the final episode.
In the US, Frozen Planet is being aired by Discovery, which was jointly involved in the production of the series. The seven programmes cost £15 million to produce and took four years to film and edit.It is understood the Frozen Planet DVD will be sold overseas, including the US, containing all seven episodes as broadcast in the UK.
Ben Stewart of Greenpeace today said: “It’s regrettable that millions of viewers in the US won’t be getting the full story when they watch this mesmerising series. It’s like pressing the stop button on Titanic just when the iceberg appears.http://www.enn.com/ecosystems/article/43567
India wants to be treated differently from other nations
The problem with the Prime Minister’s argument, of course, is that the existing policy does not treat India differently at all….The problem is rather the opposite of what the Prime Minister says: it is not that Australia treats India differently, but that India wishes to be treated differently.
If India wants uranium, let it sign the treaty The Age, 16 Nov 11Trade advantage does not make safety negotiable. THE Prime Minister, writing on our opinion page yesterday, complained that ”despite links of language, heritage and democratic values”, Australia continues to ”treat India differently”. The differential treatment, she says, lies in the fact that we do not sell India uranium for peaceful purposes, despite selling it to China, Japan and the United States. It is time, she believes, to abandon this attitude to India, while acting in our own economic best interests.
At the ALP federal conference in Sydney next month, Ms Gillard will propose that the party make an exception to its policy that Australia should continue to adhere to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, by allowing uranium exports to India. This will be all right, apparently, because we will ”expect of India the same standards we do for all countries for uranium export – strict adherence to International Atomic Energy arrangements and strong bilateral undertakings and transparency measures that will provide assurances our uranium will only be used for peaceful purposes”. Continue reading
Obama pops in to Australia to dictate policy on uranium sales to India
Gillard uranium move linked to US: report, Business Spectator, 16 Nov 2011 Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s move to open the door to uranium exports to India reportedly follows talks with the Obama administration. The US has been pursuing a closer partnership with India and considers Australia a key part of its strategy, The Australian reported on Wednesday.
Ms Gillard has denied that the decision was made to coincide with President Barack Obama’s visit to Australia and said it was her decision alone.The Australian, however, reported that US and Australian officials have been in intense strategic discussions about India for several months. http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs.nsf/Article/Gillard-uranium-move-linked-to-US-report-NMLD2?OpenDocument&src=hp3
India can thank Uncle Sam for Julia Gillard’s uranium backflip, First Post India, 16 Nov 11 Uttara Choudhury New York: Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s dramatic decision to open the door to uranium exports to India came after talks with the Obama administration, which viewed the ban as a “fly in the ointment” to greater engagement between Washington, New Delhi and Australia in the Indian Ocean region…….
Gillard announced on Tuesday that she will ask the Australian Labour Party to dump its ban on uranium sales to India, at its national conference next month. The ban was imposed by former prime minister Kevin Rudd in 2008 as India wasn’t a signatory to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty. Gillard has denied her decision to seek to overturn the ban is in order to fall in line with the US. She bristled when questioned on the timing of the announcement which coincided with Obama’s state visit to Australia. Gillard said the decision was hers alone…..
She did, however, point to the US-India civil nuclear agreement of 2008, which lifted the “de facto international ban” on the sale of uranium to India….. While Beijing has learned to live with American forces on its eastern periphery, the possibility of an intimate US-India military relationship, as well as India’s position astride China’s key maritime shipping lanes, has generated fears of encirclement…
Crisis time for the nuclear industry – future indefinite
“Fukushima is having a resounding effect in those countries where they wanted to hear it. Countries that never wanted to pursue nuclear power or who came at it reluctantly are using the event as a way to back out gracefully,”
Even as some countries continue to progress their plans, the resultant delays from additional safety checks, coupled with higher costs, has already prompted changes in estimates of the role nuclear power will play in the global energy mix.
The industry knows it needs to regain the public’s trust. It cannot afford another accident.
Nuclear power stands at a crossroads, FT, By Sylvia Pfeifer, November 15, 2011 Off the west coast of Finland on a thickly wooded island, Europe’s most advanced nuclear reactor is taking shape. The reactor, being built by France’sAreva for its Finnish customer, the utility TVO, is western Europe’s latest generation, pressurised water reactor. However, at more than €2.6bn ($3.54bn) over budget and five years late, the project is hardly the best poster child for Europe’s ambitions at a time when atomic power is under scrutiny following the crisis in Japan in the spring. Continue reading
Australia fawns over Obama, leader of a declining Power
Her new stance on uranium exports to India – – is a repudiation of many former statements.
The real measure of Mr Obama’s visit is that he is spending only 26 hours here
The most important part of the visit appears to be the announcement that marines will be based in the north,…..Mr Obama’s soft political leanings make him perfectly suited to oversee the decline of the American era. He wants to use us to exert some regional muscularity, having lost the ability to do it economically.
Let the fawning begin, The West, 16 Nov 11 Gillard’s fawning is on wrong side of history. An American president, reduced to the status of a media-driven celebrity rather than the political and economic saviour he promised to be, is on the eve of making his belated first visit to Australia.
Recent history will not repeat itself here so much as happen in reverse. What Mark Latham so delicately described as “a conga line of suckholes”… will now form on the flipside of politics in Canberra…..
Just for once, it would be nice if we kept our distance from America. Respectfully…… Ms Gillard has become a policy chameleon, rarely letting former principles stand in the way of a new position if it might advance her electorally. Continue reading
Thorium reactors impractical – just a distraction from renewable energy
Technology transitions always happen faster than the conventional market predicts PV MAGAZINE 14. NOVEMBER 2011 BY: RAY WILLS ”……Some bang on about nuclear – yes, China, in raw numbers, is planning a lot – but the country is comparatively modest in the scale of things: it is planning 70 GW of nuclear by 2020, but 200 GW of renewables, also by 2020! Also, a decision hasn’t been announced over what is being done post-Fukushima, but the analysts expect the country to proceed at a more modest scale. The 12th five-year plan was released post-Fukushima and it was in that that China increased its renewables target on solar from one GW to 10 GW by 2015,…
Thorium is the latest suggestion from those attempting to distract us from renewables as the solution, but according to those in the nuclear research arena, thorium realistically is at least 50 years away from being realized. Nevertheless, I note India talking about building a 300 megawatt (MW) prototype – it’s being played up in some parts of the press – but when you look at the detail, the proponents note, “if all goes to plan, the […] reactor could be operational by the end of the decade”. That’s just a prototype. My view is that by 2025, the game will be over, we will have solved intermittency through storage, and electricity from solar will be cheaper than coal. I don’t believe I’m dreaming, simply looking at technology shifts and the capacity for rapid technology shifts in the past – go back 100 years ago and tell the buggy and whip manufacturers they will soon be out of business and imagine the response.
Uranium sales to India will trigger India-Pakistan arms race
Should the ALP back Ms Gillard’s call,… this would be seen as “another example of international hypocrisy when it comes to Pakistan”.
Fear trade move will trigger arms race, BY:AMANDA HODGE , THE AUSTRALIAN, November 16, 2011 :SECURITY analysts on both sides of the India-Pakistan border have warned that the decision to sell Australian uranium to India could trigger an arms race between the two nuclear-armed rivals.
Pakistani nuclear physics professor and analyst Pervez Hoodbhoy told The Australian many people would be dismayed by Julia Gillard’s push to end the ban on uranium sales to India, given the likelihood it would stoke nuclear proliferation in South Asia.
“It’s very disappointing, because it’s well known that if India gets Australian uranium it will be able to divert a bigger fraction of domestically mined uranium for the production of fissile material used for making bombs,” Continue reading
Pakistan says that Australia should sell uranium to it, too
Pakistan says it should be allowed to buy uranium, ABC Radio National PM Michael Edwards ,
November 15, 2011, MARK COLVIN: Pakistan says that if Australia sells uranium to India, it too should be eligible for exports of the product. India’s chief rival is also a nuclear power and, like India, a non-signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Pakistan says it could use Australian uranium to boost its civilian nuclear power program. And its High Commissioner to Australia says itwould be discrimination to sell to India and not to Pakistan… http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2011/s3367265.htm
Alarm in India over Indian government’s nuclear plans
Activists sound alarm bells over India’s nuclear future, ABC Radio AM , By Indian correspondent Richard Lindell, November 16, 2011 India’s government has predictably welcomed Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s idea that Australia open up its uranium sales, but at home, India’s plans to expand its nuclear industry continue to face tough opposition.
From Jaitapur in the west to Koodankulam in the south, locals are protesting against nuclear power plants in their backyards. Residents who fear India could be the scene of a Fukushima have clashed with police, while others have resorted to hunger strikes.
India for Nuclear Disarmament co-founder Praful Bidwai says Japan has shown the world how disastrous nuclear power can be. “If an advanced and relatively large nuclear power state like Japan can have a nuclear catastrophe, then a backward country like India is even more likely to witness a nuclear catastrophe in the 20 reactors that we have,” he said.
“The second big lesson I think is … about the inherently hazardous nature of nuclear power generation, which is the only form of energy production anywhere on Earth which is capable of undergoing a catastrophic accident.”…..India has not made Ms Gillard’s sales job any easier.
On the day Ms Gillard announced her position on sales of uranium for peaceful purposes, India test-fired a nuclear-ready missile into international waters off the Bay of Bengal.
Biggest mining companies the beneficiaries of uranium sales to India
Gillard’s uranium backflip ‘to appease big miners’, WA Today, 16 Nov 11, Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s decision to push for uranium exportation to India may be the product of a deal struck with the big miners over the MRRT, Fortescue Metals Group chief executive Neville Power speculated yesterday.
“It’s no coincidence I guess that BHP will be the largest beneficiary of exporting uranium so maybe the deal from the MRRT continues and what we’re seeing is just payback for the support of the MRRT,” Mr Power said. Ms Gillard yesterday revealed she would lobby the Australian Labor Party to change its stance on exportation of uranium to India, a country who is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Mr Power said BHP Billiton’s Olympic Dam copper and uranium mine in South Australia stood to gain the most if the growing Indian market was opened up. “It is remarkable that Xstrata, BHP and Rio Tinto have not said a thing about the MRRT…..
The WA Labor Party has said it will maintain its blanket ban on uranium mining.…
http://www.watoday.com.au/business/gillards-uranium-backflip-to-appease-big-miners-20111116-1nhze.html#ixzz1durZFCcq
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