India’s very bad record on nuclear weapons
As Opposition Leader in 2007, Kevin Rudd argued against uranium sales to India with the prescient warning that: “No-one in Australia wants a nuclear arms race aided by us in the Indian sub-continent or between India and China because we’ve failed to properly ensure the upholding of the NPT and the [International Atomic Energy Agency] safeguards
regime under it.”
Promises and U-turns of the nuclear kind, The Drum, Jim Green, 19 Nov 11 The nuclear lobby has been softening us up for years to the idea of selling uranium to nuclear-armed India. They’ve promised the world – and delivered nothing.
This con-job began with the US-India nuclear cooperation agreement concluded in 2008. Proponents of the agreement promised non-proliferation and disarmament concessions from India but the opposite occurred. India did not commit to nuclear weapons disarmament or even to a process that would – or might – lead to disarmament in the long term. India did not commit to sign and ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). India has not stopped producing
fissile (explosive) material for nuclear weapons nor has it committed to doing so.
There is no restraint on India building new, unsafeguarded reactors orother facilities for its weapons program. India did not commit to comprehensive safeguards inspections. India is able to divert more of its own uranium to weapons and the net result of the US-India agreement has been to boost India’s capacity to produce fissile material for weapons….. Continue reading
Labor senator speaks out on nuclear weapons danger of Australia selling uranium to India
India possesses nuclear weapons but is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and current Labor policy prohibits selling uranium to any country that is not a signatory. But Senator Gavin Marshall says there is no doubt it will be used directly in India’s nuclear weapons program or to free up domestic supplies.
“Either way, Australian uranium assists in a nuclear arms race in that part of the world,” he said. “I don’t think that’s a responsible thing for this government to do.” He also does not buy the Prime Minister’s argument it would be good for jobs and disputes it would reduce poverty…..
Senator Marshall says those fighting the policy shift could still win the argument. The left convenor will meet with his other faction colleagues tomorrow. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-11-19/labor-left-fears-uranium-backflip-will-fuel-arms-race/3681338/?site=newcastle
Kevin Rudd to vote against uranium to India, at Labor Party conference?
Kevin Rudd drops a bomb over India uranium exports, by: Gemma Jones Herald Sun, November 18, 2011
“……..Kevin Rudd stood by previous statements that it would be a bad idea to sell uranium to any country that is not a signatory to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. However, he pledged his backing for Ms Gillard’s appeal to the Labor Party national conference [to debate the issue]…..
Senator Doug Cameron said the debate would be “significant and serious”.
“The Prime Minister has indicated she would operate in an open and consultative manner. I would have expected that position to be taken with the backbench on such an important issue and I am disappointed that it didn’t take place,” he said. …
An unexpected green upside to new USA military base in Australia?
When the case for renewables is made on the grounds of national security, the arguments of climate denialists and delay merchants are bombed back to the Stone Age. ….
as the U.S. Marine Corps demonstrates, energy conservation and renewable energy are now critical national security concerns.
Will President Obama Send Green Marines to Darwin?, Renewable Energy World, By Dan Cass ,November 18, 2011 President Barack Obama was in Australia this week and upset China and Indonesia with the annoucement of an increased military presence in this country, including 2500 US Marines to train and provision equipment in Darwin.
When the U.S. Marine Corp establish themselves a new home in Darwin, they will bring some seriously green equipment and ideas to our shores. This is because in the three years of his Presidency, Barack Obama has actively led the U.S. Department of Defense to embrace renewable energy and a strategic awareness of climate change…. Continue reading
Australia will now be expected to sell uranium to Pakistan
Like India, Pakistan is a nuclear armed state that refuses to sign the NPT. There is no doubt the Islamabad will be keeping a close eye Canberra and on Darling Harbour come Labor’s National Conference in December.
Inevitably, if Labor moves to sell uranium to India then Pakistan will make a political and diplomatic point of being the next cab in the radioactive rank.
If Australia sells uranium to India, will Pakistan be next?, November 18, 2011 Crikey , Dave Sweeney Uranium is both common and controversial in resource rich Australia. It is tricky stuff as it can be used to produce electricity or to fuel nuclear bombs. And India has both…….
A recent high level UN report makes the nuclear power and weapons connection clear and has a special relevance against the current backdrop of pro-sales positioning.
In the shadow of the continuing Fukushima nuclear crisis the September 2011 UN report plainly states: “Nuclear science and technology can also be used to develop nuclear weapons. Compliance with international legal instruments, such as the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, other bilateral and multilateral non-proliferation agreements and safeguards agreements with the IAEA, is therefore an essential element of the responsible use of nuclear power.”
Australia, as a significant global uranium supplier, has a responsibility to act responsibly. Different rules should apply to uranium supply than to other less destructive and divisive exports. Continue reading
Anti nuclear movement now a force in France’s election
Green party presidential candidate Eva Joly has denounced claims of hundreds of thousands of job losses as “scandalous 
lies” and said 600,000 jobs would be created by tapping alternative energy sources like solar and wind power.
Sarkozy has insisted he will continue supporting nuclear energy, saying the Fukushima disaster was “not a nuclear accident, it was an enormous tsunami”…..
France opposition to reduce nuclear power , SMH, Michael Mainville,November 17, 2011 – France’s long-held support for nuclear energy has emerged as a key issue in next year’s election after the opposition Socialists and Greens agreed to joint efforts to reduce reliance on atomic power.
The deal marks the first significant move toward limiting nuclear power in France since it embraced atomic energy after the oil shocks of the 1970s and comes amid growing disquiet here after Japan’s Fukushima atomic disaster in March. Continue reading
Tony Abbott will not be able to wind back Australia’s carbon tax
The political uncertainty is impairing the long-term investment decisions needed for a sizeable renewable-energy sector to take shape, but Gillard says: “My prediction would be we are seeing the maximum drama right now, but it will abate over time. The reality is, Tony Abbott knows you can’t go back.”
John Grimes, chief executive of the Australian Solar Energy Society, says the odds are stacked against Abbott being able to wind back Labor policies. Continue reading
Air Force 1 – President Obama’s nightmare plane
The nightmare jets and the President, Crikey.com November 17, 2011 , by Ben Sandilands The two Presidential flying command posts held at constant readiness in Australia for the duration of Barack Obama’s visit are more than exceptionally modified Boeing 747-200 Classic model jumbo jets, or the occasional specially equipped 757 or 767 in support.
These are, at worst, the Armageddon jumbo jets, flying high or low over a world ruined by a nuclear holocaust, winding their way between the stratospheric funeral pyres of incinerated cities. Either of them is ready to preserve the primary chain of command of the Union even if America has, to all intents and purposes, ceased to exist.
If that seems horrifyingly bleak, it reflects the thinking of the era in which increasingly elaborate Presidential jets were incorporated into the battle planning for nuclear conflict, or more likely, last minute nuclear brinksmanship. Continue reading
The legal facts on who owns the minerals under your land
Why miners have a right to what’s under your land, Beef Central, By Samantha Hepburn Associate Professor, School of Law at Deakin University18 Nov 2011 All over Australia, landowners are fighting to keep mining companies off their property.
From the Darling Downs to the Liverpool Plains, farmers have been locking out coal seam gas extraction companies. In Victoria, exploratory licences have been granted to the Queensland based mining company, Mantle Mining Pty Ltd, to investigate private land situated in and around the rural Victorian areas of Bacchus Marsh, Darley, Myrniong and Ballan.
Landowners are worried about the effects that exploratory drilling may have upon their the land as well as the possibility that an open cut coal mine may be developed.
Who owns the minerals under your land? Continue reading
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 