Tony Abbott exaggerated India’s nuclear safety

Fact check: Tony Abbott exaggerating India’s ‘absolutely impeccable record’ on nuclear non-proliferation ABC News, Wed 24 Sep 2014, A new bilateral agreement signed by Prime Minister Tony Abbott in early September will allow Australia to sell uranium to India for the first time.

The agreement formalises a 2007 Howard government policy to allow Australian uranium to be exported to India for energy generation, overturning a decades-old ban on uranium sales to countries which had not signed the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT)………

Mr Abbott says the agreement is a sign of trust between the two countries. “India has an absolutely impeccable record when it comes to nuclear non-proliferation,” he said…..

Diverting nuclear material from peaceful purposes

The promise not to divert nuclear material, such as uranium, from peaceful purposes to the development of nuclear weapons is a key plank of both the NPT and Australia’s uranium export policy.

Dr Rublee says India certainly does not have an impeccable record when it comes to nuclear non-proliferation.

“I do believe it’s a stretch to say it’s impeccable and in fact, the fact that India’s program began by explicitly breaking a legal commitment to Canada, tells you that there’s a problem from the very start,” she said.

Dr Rublee is referring to India’s first nuclear test, when it exploded the ‘Smiling Buddha’ nuclear bomb in 1974 using plutonium from a nuclear reactor supplied by Canada. The Canadian government immediately stopped supplying India with nuclear materials, a ban that was only overturned in 2010.

Former Labor foreign minister Professor Gareth Evans, who convenes the Asia Pacific Leadership Network for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament, also cites India’s diversion of Canadian resources to making nuclear weapons as evidence that their record is not impeccable.

“There should be no waiving of our standard safeguards requirements when it comes to accounting for Australian-supplied nuclear material,” he said.

Dr Rublee says there are also issues with how India secures its nuclear material………

India has increased its nuclear weapons stockpile, conducted nuclear testing and refused to sign the NPT. There are also question marks over its safety procedures. India’s record when it comes to nuclear non-proliferation is not “absolutely impeccable”.

Mr Abbott’s claim is exaggerated. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-09-24/tony-abbott-india-uranium-record-fact-check/5736514