Australian company Lynas meets opposition to its rare earths plan
The Star Online, said that if Lynas claimed the residue from the plant would be safe, it should be shipped back to Australia. “Malaysia cannot afford to keep a health time bomb here and we do not know when it will explode,”
Protests threaten Lynas’s Malaysian rare-earths plant, The Australian, Sarah-Jane Tasker , April 26, 2011 RARE-EARTHS miner Lynas’s plans for a processing plant in Malaysia have been thrown into doubt as local authorities review the proposal in light of concerns about radiation pollution. Continue reading
No real safeguards in Australia’s uranium to Russia
Fukushima sets faithful to spin mode James Norman The Australian April 11, 2011“………Given Julia Gillard ratified the nuclear co-operation agreement with Russia last November to supply Australian uranium, the apparent opportunism and the lack of transparency of the Russian nuclear industry is very much Australia’s business.The agreement struck with Russia contains no requirement for nuclear safeguards inspections, despite the rhetoric from the government and industry that “strict” safeguards will “ensure” peaceful use of Australian uranium in Russia.
Aside from the often stated reality that there is still no long-term safe way to dispose of nuclear waste, one of the most critical but frequently overlooked issues is the nuclear industry’s repeatedly proven connection to the proliferation of nuclear weapons. For those who remain sceptical of this connection, Iran, Pakistan and North Korea provide compelling examples….Fukushima sets faithful to spin mode | The Australian
Australia keen to sell uranium to Middle East, never mind the unrest there
“Doesn’t matter whether you’re a Communist dictatorship or a Middle Eastern Emirate” … “it seems Australia is more than happy to do the bidding of the uranium mining companies….a bad time to start selling uranium to the Middle East, given the unrest sweeping the area.”
Australia may sell uranium to UAE, Ipswich Queensland Times, Adam Gartrell, 9th March 2011 .Australian Greens Senator Scott Ludlam said the move was “profoundly unhelpful” to global non-proliferation efforts. AUSTRALIA is paving the way to sell uranium to the United Arab Emirates. Continue reading
Uranium exports and the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty
On the back of purported concern over climate change, there is increasing noise from vested interests about the need to sell uranium to India, allowing the country to limit its coal use and high greenhouse gas emissions.
This is a debate we need to engage with. We simply cannot avoid Australia’s moral and political hypocrisy in this area.
Fuelling Catastrophe: Uranium, Climate Change and Elephants – News and Events, Monash University, 7 March 2011 Dr Gavin M. Mudd,
In the midst of a debate about a proposed carbon tax – a tax we have to have (and should have had years ago) – there is another environmental proposal being prosecuted by a select minority of the Australian Government that is getting much less attention: uranium sales to nuclear-armed India. Continue reading
Danger for our region in uranium sales to India
there are fundamentally sound reasons why the Labor Party has resisted sales to India up to this point. The foremost reason is that India is not party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)
Uranium sales to India a recipe for regional insecurity Sydney Morning Herald, Leigh Hubbard February 18, 2011 The wheels are firmly in motion for the Labor Party to reconsider its position on the contentious issue of uranium sales to India if this week’s comments from Resources Minister Martin Ferguson and Paul Howes from the Australian Worker’s Union are any indication. Continue reading
Nuclear submarines: bad policy for Australia
.. bad policy and bad strategy. It turns entirely reasonable concerns about China’s military expansion into responses that verge on hysteria. The proposals are ill-defined and not costed. They would almost certainly prove counter-productive, if not downright dangerous, in terms of Australian policy towards China.
Panicky response would harm our interests Paul Dibb and Geoffrey Barker: The Australian * February 08, 2011 NATIONAL security policy is too important for federal ministers to stay mute when thoroughly bad ideas are put forward by influential government military advisers. That is why Foreign Affairs Minister Kevin Rudd and Defence Minister Stephen Smith should immediately reject proposals on how to counter China’s military expansion from Ross Babbage, as reported by Greg Sheridan in The Weekend Australian.
Babbage says Australia should acquire 12 nuclear attack submarines, host more US military bases, arm “arsenal ships” with cruise missiles and expand cyber warfare capabilities. Continue reading
America’s right wing angry attack on Julian Assange
WikiLeaks: How US political invective turned on ‘anti-American’ Julian Assange The Guardian…... demonstrates how ‘US blood on hands’ of website’s founder got fainter and fainter Luke Harding and David Leigh, The Guardian, 3 February 2011
As the cables rolled out day by day, an ugly, and in many ways deranged, backlash took place in the US. Continue reading
Wikileaks revealed the danger of selling uranium to Asia
The existing reality of massive investment in nuclear weaponry in poverty-stricken South Asia, and the potential for vastly worse outcomes, needs to be factored into debates over Australian uranium export policy……The problem is that IAEA safeguards inspections in India will at best be tokenistic.
Rolling the nuclear dice with Australian uranium The Punch, Jim Green, December 2010, Secret US cables concerning nuclear politics in South Asia provide important context for debates over Australia’s uranium export industry…… Continue reading
Australia will keep its ban on uranium sales to India
Overturning the ban would reward India’s nuclear proliferation and undermine the NPT, International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons Australia Chair Tilman Ruff said.
“Selling uranium to India runs counter to Australia’s and global security interests, and would undermine Australia’s stated support for achieving a world without nuclear weapons,” he said..
No change in ban on uranium sales to India, Sydney Morning Herald, Adam Gartrell, January 19, 2011 – The federal government has told India it won’t lift its ban on uranium sales to the South Asian giant. Continue reading
Nuclear power, an obsolete industry that is winding down
There are nine fewer nuclear power stations operating
worldwide today than there were in 2002. There are 33 fewer nuclear power stations in Europe now than there were in 1989. The US has not built one in 36 years and the Japanese have virtually stopped building them.
Pressure on Australia to sell uranium to India, and to disregard environmental issues in FTA
Australia may rethink its the ban [on uranium sales to India] in view of the powerful endorsement by leading members of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, including the US, France and Russia,……The two sides have agreed to accept the feasibility report on the proposed FTA. India is understood to have persuaded Australia to to keep extraneous issues like environment, labour and government procurement out of ambit of the FTA.
Krishna to go to Australia, uranium sale, FTA on agenda, Sify News, New Delhi, Jan 13 (IANS) India will press Australia to review its ban on the sale of uranium to New Delhi and discuss the contours of a free trade area (FTA) pact when External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna goes to Melbourne on a two-day visit next week. Continue reading
Australia ratifies IRENA’s renewable energy Treaty
51 nations have ratified IRENA’s renewable energy Treaty. Australia did so on January 11 this year.
Clinton Lauds IRENA In Abu Dhabi, Renewable Energy News : by Energy Mattersm 24 Jan 2010, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has applauded the efforts of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and their impact on addressing climate change, supporting sustainable technology, and combating “energy poverty” in the third world…. Continue reading
Britain seeks Australia’s support for its Trident nuclear missile buildup
….He also defended Britain’s nuclear arsenal….Dr Fox said a strong partnership with Australia had to be based not on sentiment ”but hard-headed pragmatism”.
British defence chief visits to rebuild ties, The Age, Daniel Flitton, January 14, 2011 “….. major security talks in Australia. Dr Fox will join Foreign Secretary William Hague in Sydney next week Continue reading
Australia would support USA attacks in Middle East
Any move in that direction would be met with maximum force from the US and its allies, including Australia.…………Maximum force is also on the agenda for nearby Iran..
Afghanistan to remain our biggest worry | The DailyTelegraphIan McPhedranJanuary 11, 2011 THE campaign in Afghanistan will dominate the military landscape this year as Australia and the other 44 nations involved in the international force struggle to develop a workable exit strategy from the eight-year conflict…. Continue reading
Australia’s new agreement with USA on nuclear technology
The United States has a central place in Australia’s network of nuclear cooperation agreements. In 2009 Australia exported 36 per cent of its $1.16 billion global uranium sales to US power utilities.
Australia-United States Agreement on Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy, Kevin Rudd, 22 December 2010, Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs Australia and the United States today brought into force a new agreement that cements cooperation by our two nations in the peaceful use of nuclear material and technology. Continue reading
1 This month
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