Australia’s Foreign Minister in denial on India’s non-proliferation record – Greens
Australian Greens spokesperson for nuclear policy Senator for Western Australia Scott Ludlam. 22 January 2013 Foreign Minister Bob Carr’s defence of India’s non-proliferation record defies belief as well as history the Australian Greens said today.
“It is ridiculous for Bob Carr to defend India’s non-proliferation record when India produced plutonium for weapons in 1974 from a Canadian-supplied reactor it pledged to use only for ‘peaceful purposes’.
“The Foreign Minister has forgotten that Australia played a leading in role in establishing the Nuclear Supplies Group in direct response to this duplicity.
“The Foreign Minister has also forgotten that K. Subrahmanyam, former head of the national security advisory board in 
India, said in 2005: ‘Given India’s uranium ore crunch and the need to build up our … nuclear deterrent arsenal as fast as possible, it is to India’s advantage to categorise as many power reactors as possible as civilian ones to be refuelled by imported uranium and conserve our native uranium fuel for weapons-grade plutonium production’. Clearly, Australian uranium would boost India’s nuclear weapons capacity.
“Rather than a fine non-proliferation record, India has a history of illicit nuclear procurement, has inadequate nuclear export controls, does not allow IAEA inspections of all of its nuclear plants, refuses to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, continues to expand its nuclear arsenal and missile capabilities, and actively contributes to the sub-continent being host to the most precarious nuclear stand-off in the world.
“India is also dangerous for peaceful anti-nuclear protesters, five of whom have been murdered since 2010 in the struggles against the nuclear industry in Koodankulam (Tamil Nadu), Jaitapur (Maharashtra) and Gorakhpur (Haryana).
“By pouring uranium into this country, Australia would fuel regional nuclear dangers and encourage an industry that India’s own Auditor General has strongly condemned, given there is no national policy on nuclear and radiation safety and that supervision of licensing, registration of nuclear radiating machines and sites, inspections, monitoring, policy development and safety standards, emergency response and verification of the disposal of nuclear waste are all sub-standard.
“Australia selling uranium to India is also a violation of the 1995 NPT Review and Extension Conference commitment to require full-scope safeguards as a condition of supply, and of our obligations under Article IV of the Treaty of Rarotonga which obliges signatories to not supply equipment or material to countries no under full scope safeguards. India is not under full scope safeguards.
“Given these facts on the ground, any uranium deal Australia does with India would be a reckless denial of safety, security and regulatory problems. The Foreign Minister is in denial if he thinks all is well in India, or that the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties will simply rubber stamp an agreement that overturns long-held Australian nuclear policy.”
Bob Carr- Australia furthering plans to sell uranium to India
India, Australia to hold civil nuclear talks in March http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/industry-and-economy/government-and-policy/india-australia-to-hold-civil-nuclear-talks-in-march/article4328430.ece?ref=wl_industry-and-economy NEW DELHI, JAN 21:
India and Australia have agreed to hold the first round of negotiations on the civil nuclear co-operation agreement here in March, the visiting Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr said on Monday.
“Australian and Indian officials will be working to conclude the agreement, which will enable the export of uranium from Australia to India,” the Minister said after holding talks with External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid.
Carr said the issue of further strengthening bilateral investment ties, including the Australian Minister of Trade’s visit here later this month to advance the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) was also discussed.
Sources said while issues regarding the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement did come up at the talks, it was decided that this would be taken up during the forthcoming visit of the Australian Trade Minister.
The Minister announced that as part of the Australia-India water technology partnership, the first phase of the $12-million initiative would commence with a pilot project of an Australian modelling tool for water management in the Brahmani and Baitarani river basins in eastern India.
Pointing out that trade negotiators had been engaged in broadening their understanding towards a mutually beneficial CECA, Khurshid said, “Our investments in Australia have grown significantly in recent years, particularly in the resources sector. We have welcomed the Australian side to invest in the opportunities in India. Our Defence Minister will be visiting Australia soon for further discussions on co-operation in defence and security.”
How Australia hypocritically bought UAE’s vote to get a seat on UN Security Council
Two news items here and, two below these, show the depth of hypocrisy of the Austrakian government and its unelected Foreign Minister, Bob Carr. We might well ask why Carr was parachuted into that position. He now presides over hypocrisies such as this one – the way in which United Arab Emirates was bribed into voting for Australia for the seat on the UN Security Council.
First Australia promises to lift its foreign aid, then agrees to sell uranium to UAE. Having secured the seat on the UN Security Council, Australia proceeds to cut back the foreign aid. But we’re still going to sell uranium to UAE – that’s OK. And, maybe later, when the Australian public can be won over, why, Mr Carr might be happy to arrange the take back of UAE’s nuclear wastes? – Christina Macpherson
Cynical politics drive cuts to overseas aid By TIM COSTELLO and JACK de GROOT Dec. 20, 2012, THE federal government has dropped a bombshell on poor communities in developing countries, just in time for Christmas.
UAE to back Australia’s bid for UN Security Council seat, The National, Awad Mustafa Aug 3, 2012 ABU DHABI , The UAE will back Australia’s bid for a seat on the United Nations Security Council this autumn, the Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed has confirmed.
Bob Carr arranges uranium sales to UAE, but not ready YET to take back their nuclear wastes
Australia to supply UAE nuclear fuel but will not take radioactive waste, The National April Yee Aug 1, 2012 ABU DHABI // Australia has opened the door to supplying the UAE with nuclear fuel but has ruled out taking back the radioactive waste it generates…… we’re happy to make a big commitment to providing them with energy security,” the Australian foreign minister Bob Carr said yesterday.
Australia has the world’s biggest uranium reserves, nearly a quarter of the global supply, and is expected to be one of the main suppliers for the UAE’s nuclear power plant.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sheikh Abdullah, signed a nuclear cooperation agreement with Mr Carr last night allowing for such nuclear trade as Abu Dhabi prepares to award a major contract for 15 years’ worth of uranium. But fuel leasing, in which the supplier takes back the spent fuel, is off the cards for now in Australia, which also bans nuclear plants at home.”Public opinion in Australia would be resolutely opposed to taking back nuclear waste,” said Mr Carr. “That’s a very big step, and there wouldn’t be public support for it.”
When Abu Dhabi outlined its plans to build the Arab world’s first nuclear power plant in 2008, it had hoped that some supplier nations would be willing to take back the waste. Continue reading
Australia’s uranium fuel deal with United Arab Emirates (UAE)
ABU DHABI // UAE-Australian relations have been moving from strength to strength helped by the recent nuclear-fuel deal, according to the Australian parliamentary secretary for foreign affairs, The Nation, Richard Marles. 16 Jan 13
Mr Marles said that the UAE nuclear cooperation agreement signed in July last year had given a “considerable boost to the Uranium industry in Australia……The Australian secretary added that the UAE was Australia’s base of operations for all its Middle East military operations. “The UAE is our most important partner in the region. Our defence operations in the Middle East are all coordinated out of Dubai, including operations in Iraq, Afghanistan as well as our counter piracy work,” he said.: http://www.thenational.ae/news/uae-news/uae-australia-nuclear-fuel-deal-boosts-ties#ixzz2ICw1zAOe
In Malawi Australian uranium company Paladin accused of poor corporate responsibility
Paladin, Malawi given 14 days to renegotiate uranium deal, by Charles Kufa, Nyasa Times, 14 Jan 13, Malawi’s opposition Peoples Transformation Party (Petra) has added its voice to the concerns raised by African Forum and Network on Debt and Development (AFRODAD) that the government of Malawi had made a bad choice of project given the absence of transparency and accountability in the deal.
PETRA president Kamuzo Chibambo tol d reporters in Blantyre on Monday that his party has given Paladin and President Joyce Banda’s administration 14 days to explain why the uranium mining deal can’t be renegotiated for the benefit of Malawians……
He demanded that the government should renegotiate for at least a 40% stake and selling rights in the next 14 days…..
He also asked the government to tell measures it has put in place to avoid pollution seeping into Lake Malawi…..
A representative of the CSOs Moses Mkandawire said “We would like paladin to declare all what it has sold. The government also should declare all what it has received from the uranium project since it started.
He said that they had also performed poorly in the area of corporate responsibility.
As CSOs he said, another deal should be made possible for the benefit of Malawians who are the real owners of the resources. http://www.nyasatimes.com/malawi/2013/01/14/paladin-malawi-govt-given-14-day-ultimatum-to-renegotiate-uranium-deal/
Unpopularity of USA missile testing in Australia
US missile tests backfired for PM BY: BRENDAN NICHOLSON The
Australian January 01, 2013 WHEN Bob Hawke gave the nod to an American
plan to fire some of their new MX intercontinental ballistic missiles
into the ocean 220km east of Tasmania, the Labor leader made one of
the biggest miscalculations of an illustrious career.
His decision triggered a wave of renewed anti-American feeling,
protests and, cabinet documents reveal, a carefully planned backdown
by the Labor government.
In 1981 the Fraser government had told the Americans it was fine for
them to carry out the tests but, probably not wanting to startle the
Tasmanians, Malcolm Fraser’s team neglected to tell anyone about this
undertaking. Continue reading
Background to Australia’s story of uranium sales to India
The Lowy Institute’s dangerous nuclear propaganda, Online Opinion, Jim Green, 28 December 12 The Lowy Institute portrays itself as an independent think-tank. But a close looks at the Institute’s work in relation to uranium sales to India suggests it is a dangerous, reactionary propaganda outfit.
First to briefly recap the debate over uranium sales to India (as discussed in Online Opinion earlier this year). India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea are the four nuclear weapons states outside the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Five countries are ‘declared’ nuclear weapons states within the NPT − the USA, Russia, UK, France and China. The declared weapons states are obliged under the NPT to seriously pursue nuclear disarmament, though none of them do so and nothing is done to hold them to account.
For many years it was bipartisan policy in Australia to permit uranium sales to NPT states (including declared weapons states) but not to countries outside the NPT. The Howard government reversed that policy in 2007, the Rudd Labor government held firm on the principle of refusing uranium sales to non-NPT states, but Julia Gillard orchestrated a policy reversal at the 2011 ALP National Conference. Bilateral uranium export negotiations are slowly progressing between Australia and India. Continue reading
Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) looks to renewed nuclear agreement between USA and Australia
Nuclear Energy Agreements With Russia, Australia Open Door for Expanded Trade, Nuclear Energy Institute, 12/10/2010
WASHINGTON, D.C.—With the completion of the congressional review, the
way is clear for the Obama administration to enact a civilian nuclear
energy cooperation agreement with Russia and renewed another with
Australia, commonly known as “123 agreements.”
The bilateral
agreements with the two nations will open the door for new nuclear
trade, research and technology transfers. Following is a statement
from the Nuclear Energy Institutes President and Chief Executive
Officer Marvin Fertel:
“These agreements are important to the United States to allow for the
supply of nuclear technology, fuel and services with other countries….
“The agreement with Australia renews and strengthens a long-standing
accord with an important partner. ….
“With these agreements, American nuclear technology companies and
suppliers will have broader global market access.”
Lynas rare earths company DOES have a radioactive waste problem
Lynas was attracted to Malaysia because it was offered tax free status for 10 years.
there was little mention of the waste — or “residue”, as Lynas prefers to call it.
Lynas and its supporters assert its operations are completely safe, but as NM reported on Monday, others — including scientists — are less confident.
The IAEA also recommended that Lynas proceed no further until it had filed comprehensive plans for the permanent disposal of waste, decommissioning of the plant and remediation of the site at the end of its life.
Lynas’ waste plans a toxic pipe dream Aliran, 19 December 2012 Scientists and community leaders are concerned about radioactive waste from Lynas’ Malaysian plant but the company representative who took Wendy Bacon’s questions brushed off the criticism. This is the second of two articles about Lynas by Wendy Bacon. Read the first here.http://aliran.com/11005.html Australian rare earth company Lynas has always known it had a waste problem.
It plans to process rare earth concentrate, imported from its mine at Mount Weld in Western Australia, at its Lynas Advanced Materials Plant (Lamp) in Malaysia. It will not only produce rare earths for export but also a huge amount of waste, including more than a million cubic metres of low level radioactive material.
Lynas was originally going to build its Lamp plant in China, which produces more than 90 per cent of global rare earths. But according to its 2007 annual report, it decided to move to Malaysia, because the Chinese government was increasing its control over production, including applying environmental standards more strictly. Continue reading
Lynas in Malaysian court tomorrow over its confused and contradictory radioactive wastes plans
Lynas will be in court in Malaysia on 19 December. The Save Malaysia Stop Lynas (SMSL) campaigners will be appealing against the Kuantan High Court decision to lift its stay on the company being able to exercise its rights to proceed under the temporary licence.
The toxic waste that’s not in Australia’s backyard http://aliran.com/11005.html 18 Dec 12,
Australian-owned company Lynas is quietly shipping rare earth to a processing plant in Malaysia – without a firm plan in place to dispose of dangerous radioactive waste. Wendy Bacon reports.
If a manufacturing plant involving radioactive materials moved into your community, one of the first things you would ask is, “what’s going to happen to the waste?”
This is exactly how residents of Kuantan on Malaysia’s east coast reacted when the Australian company Lynas announced plans to build Lamp, the world’s biggest rare earth processing plant in their area.
Several years later, they have no clear answer. Indeed last week, while the plant that will use concentrate imported from Lynas’s rare earth mine at Mount Weld in Western Australia was finally ramping up for production, the Malaysian government and the company were in direct conflict about what would happen to the waste. Continue reading
Malawi govt was urged to get a better deal from Australian uranium miner Paladin
Malawi told to renegotiate Paladin uranium deal http://en.starafrica.com/news/malawi-told-to-renegotiate-paladin-uranium-deal.html December 7, 2012 The African Forum and Network on Debt and Development (AFRODAD) Executive Director Collins Magalasi told journalists in the capital Lilongwe on Friday that the government of Malawi had made a bad choice of project given the absence of transparency and accountability in the deal.
“Government needs to look back at the contract and renegotiate for a better deal which can benefit the nation including the communities where the project takes place” he said. He therefore urged Malawi MPs and civil society organisations (CSOs) to take up the issue and bring pressure to bear on the government to return to the negotiating table.
A representative of the CSOs Moses Mkandawire said they are ready to take up the issue to government to renegotiate for a better deal with the Paladin Company.
“We would like Paladin to declare all what it has sold. The government should also declare all what it has received from the uranium project since it started” he said, adding that the company has paid little in terms of royalties to the state.
He said they had also performed poorly in the area of corporate social responsibility. As CSOs, he said, another deal should be made possible for the benefit of Malawians who are the real owners of the resources.
Malaysian MP explains why Malaysians are opposing the Lynas rare earths plant
Why should we allow anything less in terms of safety standards than Australia? Does the BN government feel that the Australian Government is being too fussy? Or that Malaysians can take more radiation than the Australians?
The Anti-Lynas movement: Are we being unreasonable? – Jeyakumar Devaraj, The Malaysian Insider , 13 Dec 12 Dr Jeyakumar Devaraj is a PSM central committee member and MP for Sungai Siput.“……..Vastly Differing Standards First, a brief overview of the industrial process of separating the rare earths from the rest of the ore.
Lynas actually has the license to operate a refining plant in Australia itself. Lynas acquired this license upon buying over Aston, the company that owned the mine in Mount Weld. In the mid 1990s, Ashton applied for a license to refine the ore, and in the process of consultations with the public in the region, agreed to a set of specific performances. If Lynas wants to use the refining license that came with the purchase of Ashton, it is committed to observing all the procedures agreed to by Ashton earlier.The table below compares requirements that Lynas would have to observe in Australia with the requirements for it in Malaysia.
The government has said in Parliament that Lynas is keen on operating a plant here because the total cost in Malaysia is only 30 per cent of the cost of refining the ore in Australia! (Despite the fact that it has to be transported from Mount Weld to Freemantle Port, loaded on ships and then brought some 4000 km to Kuantan for refining!) That means safety precautions in Malaysia are so much more lax than those required in Australia.
This point alone makes me uncomfortable. Continue reading
Concern that Australian aid money is going to support Australian mining firms in Africa
AID MONEY USED TO SUPPORT MINING CSR PROJECTS http://acan.org.au/2012/10/aid-money-used-to-support-mining-csr-projects/ A group of Australian and international civil society groups, lead primarily by AID/WATCH, have written an open letter to Foreign Minister, Bob Carr, expressing concern that Australian aid money is supporting the CSR initiatives of Australian mining firms, particularly in Africa.
The Foreign Minister recently announced at a mining conference that funds from the Development Assistance Program (DAP), administered by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) but financed by AusAID (Australia’s state foreign aid agency), are being used to co-finance (with various mining companies) the community projects used by mining companies to garner their ‘social license to operate’.
The civil society groups have raised concerns in their letter that mining is not an effective approach to spurring community development – noting that actually mining tends to harm the lives of people in developing countries rather than improve it, a phenomenon commonly referred to as the ‘resource curse’. The letter also alleged that some recipients of the aid money are not reputable, noting the Paladin corporation has been linked to corruption in Malawi.
The signatories of the letter urged the Australian Government to revise their approach to delivering aid for the purpose of supporting mining as a means of community development. There has been no response from DFAT or Minister Carr’s office.
Lawyers acting for Paladin have been in contact with AID/WATCH. Their correspondence laid out that AID/WATCH’s letter potentially damaged the reputation Paladin’s CEO and the company overall. Paladin demanded the withdraw of the letter from Aid/Watch’s site, commit in writing to never publishing similar statements in the future and publish a letter prominently on their site apologizing to Paladin and their CEO. The lawyers noted that should AID/WATCH fail to abide by the terms “Paladin and John Borshoff reserve their rights in this matter”.
The threats made in the letter are hollow since Australian law does not provide to corporations a cause of action to sue for defamation, and John Borshoff was not named in the letter to the Foreign Minister. However, AID/WATCH has since removed the letter from their site, but it can be accessed on Mines & Communities website here. http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=11978&l=1
Malawi group calls off its anti-Paladin protest – what is going on?
Malawi group gets Paladin’s K0.9 million to publicize aborted protest … The Maravi Post-14/11/2012 Malawi group gets Paladin’s K0.9 million to publicize aborted … MZUZU–Paladin (Africa) Limited has provided funds amounting to K900, 000 … subscribers only
Paladin accuser recants threat allegation; Kyungu’s point man ... The Maravi Post-26/11/2012 MZUZU–Karonga Youth for Justice and Development (KYJD) has recanted the allegation made against Paladin (Africa) Limited, owners of … subscribers only http://www.maravipost.com/malawi-news/society/2331-paladin-accuser-recants-threat-allegation-kyungu%E2%80%99s-point-man-praises-mining-firm.html
1 This month
of the week – Australians for War Powers Reform (AWPR)
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity
Antinuclear 