Australia should rethink uranium sales to India, as India has poor nuclear security
India scores poorly in nuclear security ratings, The Age, David Wroe, January 13, 2012 A NEW report that gives India a poor rating on nuclear material security has been seized on by opponents of plans for Australia to sell uranium to the emerging economic giant. The report, released yesterday by US think tank the Nuclear Threat Initiative, ranked India fourth-last among countries with significant quantities of weapons-grade nuclear material, putting it above only North Korea, Pakistan, Iran and Vietnam.
The Nuclear Materials Security Index assessed countries’ ”contribution towards improved global nuclear materials security
conditions”. The report follows Labor’s proposal, ratified at its party conference late last year, to overturn its long-held stance against selling uranium to India, which has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
As part of its deal with India, Australia is negotiating a treaty to guarantee safeguards on its uranium exports.
But Greens nuclear spokesman Scott Ludlam said the report highlighted how far India had to go in meeting the standards Australia should demand. ”I think this is going to force the government to put some teeth into this so-called safeguards agreement, which doesn’t address the kinds of issues that the NTI is putting down in their paper,” Senator Ludlam said.
The NTI’s report rated India as below average on a number of issues including transparency, corruption, the number of sites where material was stored, the independence of regulators and security during transport.
”I think it’s a massive wake-up call that, first of all, the change of policy at the end of last year was a mistake,” Senator Ludlam said. On a broader scale that included countries not in the possession of weapons-usable material, Australia ranked No. 1 in the world, partly because it has little nuclear material at all.
http://www.theage.com.au/national/india-scores-poorly-in-nuclear-security-ratings-20120112-1pxj6.html#ixzz1jNWNIOtk
Japan hosts Global Conference for a Nuclear Power Free World
Antinuclear event open to general public, Japan Times, By ERIKO ARITA, 13 Jan 12, As public 
interest in nuclear-power issues soared following the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, there has been a push to get more people involved in discussing alternate energy solutions.
The Global Conference for a Nuclear Power Free World in Yokohama this weekend will be open to the general public and will feature events organized by Japan-based NGOs such as Peace Boat, the Institute for Sustainable Energy Policies, Green Action and the Citizens’ Nuclear Information Center.
In the main sessions of the conference, researchers, politicians, activists and citizens will discuss the quake-triggered crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, and how to realize a world that runs totally on green energy.
There will also be talks by living witnesses to past nuclear incidents from Japan, Tahiti, Australia and including witnesses to the Chernobyl disaster of 1986. In addition to the lectures, there will be films, concerts and a photography exhibition offering educational entertainment.
Ahead of the conference, guest speaker Kristopher Stevens said the collective actions of people will decide the world’s future. “Fukushima has reminded us of the hubris of those who say, ‘An accident can never happen.’ Fortunately, there is another way forward. A path where individual residents, communities, government and industry contribute to a more resilient, effective and efficient renewables-based energy system.”
Japanese-English interpretation will be made for most of the conference’s programs.
The Global Conference for a Nuclear Power Free World takes place at the Pacifico Yokohama Conference Center on Jan. 14 (1 p.m. till 8:30 p.m.) and Jan. 15 (10 a.m. till 7:30 p.m.). The venue is near Minato Mirai Station on the Minato Mirai Line and is a 12-minute walk from Sakuragicho Station on the JR Keihin Tohoku Line. A two-day ticket costs ¥4,500 (¥3,900 in advance) and allows participation in all programs. Limited-access tickets cost ¥2,000-¥2,500. For more information, visit npfree.jp. http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/fq20120113a2.html
Secret war already going on between Israel, USA and Iran
No one has claimed responsibility for the killing. But on Tuesday, Lieutenant-General Benny Gantz, Israel’s military chief of staff, told a special parliamentary committee Iran should expect more “unnatural” events in 2012
There has been obvious push-back from Iran in the form of repeated claims its secretive Al Quds Force has attacked U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan using Iranian-designed improvised explosive devices.
“Waging a covert, low-level war is not without risks, including the risk of undesirable escalation,” “No matter how carefully we try to control the level of force, there’s always the danger that matters spiral out of control.”
Iranian nuclear scientists’ deaths no mystery, National Post, Peter Goodspeed 13 Jan 12, A covert war between Iran and the West burst to the surface Wednesday on the fashionable streets of northern Tehran when two men on a motorcycle attached a magnetic bomb to the car of a 32-year-old nuclear scientist, killing him and his bodyguard…….
Mr. Roshan’s killing is the latest in a long line of suspicious setbacks to Iran’s nuclear program. These have included assassinations, kidnappings, sabotaged equipment, computer viruses that destroyed information networks and mysterious
explosions at nuclear sites, missile-testing grounds, refineries and pipelines.
“Iranian nuclear engineers have to worry about being killed on their way to work, about their colleagues leaking information to the West, about their computers not working, about their equipment malfunctioning, about lacking necessary materials, about unavailability of training and advice and about the possibility of strikes from UAVs [drones]. That list of problems is daunting,” said Patrick Clawson, director of research for the Washington Institute for
Near East Policy….. Continue reading
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of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 