Antinuclear

Greens to alert the Senate on the anti nuclear protest crisis in India

Senator Scott Ludlam will put a motion to the Senate  – noting India’s repressive frackdown on anti nuclear protestors, and the growing anti nuclear movement in India, – and also the illegality of Australia selling uranium to India (non signatory to the NPT.)

The motion will call on the Australian government to protest the Indian government’s actions against peaceful protestors in Koodankulam, and warn on nuclear safety procedures, and on the need for independent nuclear regulation. It will call on the Australain government not to allow sales of uranium outside the Nuclear non Proliferation Treaty

SENATOR LUDLAM

I give notice that on the next day of sitting I will move that the Senate –

Notes:

a)      A crack down on nonviolent anti-nuclear power protesters , including arrests for sedition and the prohibition on people congregating, has occurred at the construction site of a nuclear reactor near the fishing village of Koodankulam in south India on 19 and 20 March 2012;

b)      Fifteen people are on an indefinite hunger strike until the nonviolent protesters are released;

c)      A growing mass movement in India opposed to nuclear power include protests in Jaitapur, Maharashtra and Gorakhpur, Haryana;

d)     the sale of uranium to India while that country refuses to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty would be illegal under Treaty of Rarotonga, signed by the Australian government in 1985;

e)      The 1998 Security Council resolution 1172 “encourages all States to prevent the export of equipment, materials or technology that could in any way assist programmes in India or Pakistan for nuclear weapons or for ballistic missiles capable of delivering such weapons, and welcomes national policies adopted and declared in this respect.”

Calls on the government to utilise all diplomatic channels to:

a)      Protest the Indian government’s unprecedented deployment of police around Koodankulam and the harassment of peaceful protesters as inconsistent with the democratic right to peaceful protest;

b)      Caution the Indian government against loading uranium fuel rods into the reactor at Koodankulam without conducting any safety or evacuation drills, mandatory exercises under the Indian Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) rules;

c)      Promote the independence of nuclear regulators from industry and government as best international practice;

d)     not sell uranium to countries that stand outside the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and its associated safeguards system.

March 21, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, politics