India ramps up “China killer” nuclear missiles, As Australia’s Labor government ready to sell uranium to India
India’s muscle flexing comes at a sensitive juncture for Australia, too.
At the Australian Labor Party’s national conference this weekend, one of the pre-eminent agenda items is a motion to end the ban on selling uranium to India.
a new market offering high-grade uranium ore for India’s civilian reactors frees up the country’s limited indigenous supplies for boosting its military program.
India to test new missile dubbed ‘the China killer’, The Age 3 Dec 11, Given the incendiary moniker ”the China killer” by the more sensationalist press, India’s newest nuclear-capable missile will be its most powerful yet, and an unmistakable signal to its neighbours.
Agni V – formally named after the Hindu god of fire and acceptor of sacrifices – is set to be tested within three months. It will be capable of carrying a nuclear warhead 5000 kilometres, meaning it can reach not only Beijing and Shanghai, but all of northern China. India’s existing arsenal can already reach every corner of Pakistan…. Continue reading
Lack of principle in Australia selling uranium to nuclear-armed India, no proper safeguards
The alternative course for Australia is to side with the large majority of the world’s countries who want to re-establish and reinforce the principle that nuclear trade should be restricted to countries that have signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty and take seriously their non-proliferation and disarmament commitments.
We could take a principled rather than an unprincipled approach. We could lead rather than follow.
Safeguarding uranium exports to India Online Opinion , Dr Jim Green, 1 Dec 11 A big part of the PR pitch for uranium sales to nuclear-armed India is the assertion that ‘strict’ safeguards will ‘ensure’ peaceful use of Australian uranium. Sadly, it’s just PR.
The claim sits uncomfortably with the reality that safeguards are based on occasional inspections of some nuclear plants by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The claim sits even more uncomfortably with the observations of recently-retired IAEA chief Mohamed El Baradei that the Agency’s basic rights of inspection are “fairly limited”, the safeguards system suffers from “vulnerabilities” and efforts to improve it have been “half-hearted”, and the system operates on a “shoestring budget…comparable to a local police department”. Continue reading
Australia to join USA-India defence pact – antagonising China
U.S. officials have been particularly pushing Canberra to commit additionally to construction of a new fleet of 12 powerful missile submarines — possibly of U.S. design — in what would be the country’s largest sole defence acquisition.
URANIUM SALES TO INDIA…Rudd told the Australian Financial Review that a looming weekend vote and expected approval by Australia’s ruling Labor Party to drop a longstanding ban on uranium sales to non-Nuclear Proliferation Treaty countries like India could help clear the way for formation of a new pact.
Australia backs security pact with U.S., India, By Rob Taylor, Additional reporting by Sui-Lee Wee in Beijing, Editing by Ed Davies and Jonathan Thatcher), CANBERRA | Wed Nov 30, 2011 (Reuters) – Australia’s foreign minister on Wednesday backed the formation of a security pact with India and the United States, a tie-up that could fuel China’s worries of being fenced in by wary neighbors.
It is the latest move by Australia to take a bigger role in the region’s security. Earlier this month, it
agreed to host a de facto U.S. base in the north of the country which would provide military reach into southeast Asia and the South China Sea, where China has disputes with several other states over sovereignty…..
It was unclear why Rudd, a Mandarin-speaking Sinophile, would risk irritating Australia’s top trade partner China which is already nervous that Obama’s latest diplomatic push into the Asia-Pacific is part of broader U.S. policy to encircle it…..
prominent Chinese military commentator, People’s Liberation Army Major General Luo Yuan, said this week that Washington was clearly trying to fence in Beijing. Continue reading
Australian company SILEX’s laser uranium enrichment technology – risks of nuclear weapons proliferation
many of the good things GE is using to make a case about Silex—less use of resources and electricity and increased efficiency—are actually negatives that make it easier for rogue states to hide clandestine plants…..methods for the production and use of nuclear materials that would be more difficult to detect,” the report states
New Uranium Enrichment Technology Alarms Aviation Week, By Kristin Majcher Washington 23 Nov 11 General Electric says it has successfully tested a faster, cheaper way to produce nuclear reactor fuel, and is planning to commercialize the technology by building a facility in Wilmington, N.C. While the prospect of saving resources to generate energy at a lower price sounds like a breakthrough, scientists are concerned that the top-secret method of enrichment that GE is using will indirectly elevate proliferation risks around the world, thus inspiring rogue states to develop their own laser enrichment facilities for nuclear
weapons.
The enrichment technology is the Separation of Isotopes by Laser Excitation (Silex). It was developed by Silex of Australia in 1992. The technology company USEC funded early research on Silex, but abandoned it in favor of focusing on centrifuge enrichment. In 2006, GE signed an exclusive agreement to commercialize and license the technology and spearhead further research and development. Continue reading
Australia will lose all Non Proliferation credibility in selling uranium to India
India continues to give assurances that imported materials are solely for civilian use, yet it refuses to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and is yet to ratify the International Atomic Energy Safeguards Agreement.
Blindly following bad US policy is neither in our best interests nor the world’s. It would be a terrible compromise of our nation’s principles, and put at risk our enviable reputation as a responsible global citizen for very little short-term gain.
Gillard’s uranium-to-India play is a dangerous sellout, SMH, Senator Gavin Marshall, November 21, 2011 Australia risks contributing to the India-Pakistan nuclear arms race.
NEXT month’s ALP national conference will be asked to make a decision of global importance: whether to back Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s call for Australia to export uranium to India. Australia must decide whether to stand with the vast majority of nations in supporting the principle of nuclear disarmament, or to stand with those who continue to undermine it.
India is not the responsible nuclear citizen that many would have us believe. It has a long history of broken promises and reckless conduct relating to its nuclear programs. Continue reading
Australia has four options on nuclear disarmament and uranium sales
Promises and U-turns of the nuclear kind, The Drum, Jim Green, 19 Nov 11“…..What steps could Australia take to extricate us from the current mess – the South Asian nuclear arms race, and the broader problem of nuclear proliferation?
Option #1 is to leave uranium in the ground. It’s not as radical an idea as it might sound. Uranium accounts for a paltry 0.3 per cent of national export revenue and 0.03 per cent of Australian jobs. Few would notice if the industry vanished and still fewer would miss it.
Option #2 is to apply current government policy – restricting supply to countries that have signed the NPT. A variation of that option would be to restrict supply to NPT signatories that are serious about their non-proliferation and disarmament obligations – that would require a rethink of supply to, for example, the US and China since they have not ratified the CTBT. Continue reading
USA militarisation in Australia is disturbing to China
The Global Times, a tabloid owned by the Communist Party’s People’s Daily newspaper, hit hard upon the theme of 
besiegement. It quoted a People’s Liberation Army major general as saying that the expanded U.S. training and deployment base inAustralia was one of a series of U.S. installations to “encircle China from the north to the south of the Asia-Pacific region.”….
Beijing is wary of Obama’s assertive China policy , Taiwan News, By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN Associated Press 2011-11-18 President Barack Obama‘s sudden moves to contest rising Chinese power are setting this capital on edge, even if in public the response has been muted.
During his ongoing nine-day swing through the Asia-Pacific region, Obama has already unveiled a plan for an expanded U.S. Marines presence in Australia, advocated a new free-trade area that leaves China out, and called on Beijing not to buck the current world order.
The Beijing government is trying to understand the shift, tasking academic experts to review the initiatives and submit options on how to respond. Continue reading
Questions: nuclear submarines for Darwin? Greens, China, Indonesia – all want answers
We need more details of US build-up: Brown, SMH, 17 Nov 11, Australian Greens leader Bob Brown fears nuclear submarines could be stationed off the coast of Australia as part of a US military build-up in the Top End……
The expansion of the existing collaboration between the Australian Defence Force and the US Marine Corps and US Air Force will allow America to enhance its presence in the Asia-Pacific region
Senator Brown wants to see more details of the deal, announced jointly by Prime Minister Julia Gillard and US President Barack Obama on Wednesday. He also wants a parliamentary debate on the deal. “I object to Australian people and parliament not knowing what the details are,” Senator Brown told ABC radio on Thursday. Continue reading
Darwin U.S. military base opens the way for cluster munitions and nuclear-powered vessels
probability cluster munitions will be stockpiled in Darwin since there are known plans for the US to base a number of B-52 bombers historically used to deploy cluster bombs. It is already known that nuclear weapons will not be permitted onto Australian territory, but a number of the US’ naval fleet are nuclear-powered vessels which will be allowed…….
Both acts would result in Australia violating the spirit and intent of the Convention—to eliminate cluster munitions and the harm they cause for all time. And both are likely to occur as a result of the US base in Darwin.
Theorising Darwin: US may stockpile and transit cluster munitions Crikey, November 17, 2011 , by NAJ Taylor, A US military ‘base’ in Darwin will necessitate foreign weapons systems and armaments being stockpiled, retained and transited on and in Australian territory (spun as a “rotational deployment” – for China? I’ll use base until I know better).
Whilst long-standing and committed allies, Australia and the United States hold different positions on many matters relating to both arms control and humanitarian law. One recent normative development where the US and Australia’s views have diverged is the ban on cluster bombs, Continue reading
The dangers of U.S. nuclear powered ships, military equipment, in Darwin
Weigh up all the costs of greater US defence role SMH, Jan Thornley, 14 Nov 11 Your [Sydney Morning Herald’s] front page juxtaposition of disturbing information on the continuing radioactive contamination at Maralinga and the imminent announcement of the US military expanding its presence in Australia should be a warning to us all (”Greens fury at US build-up”, ”Ten years after the all-clear, Maralinga is still toxic”, November 12-13).
Fifty-five years ago we allowed British nuclear weapons tests on Australian soil, which has left this toxic, dangerous legacy for the health of people and the environment. We should be aware of the cloak of secrecy and lack of debate that surrounded the planning and decision making for this sorry chapter in our history. We are entitled to open and transparent information of all potential risks Australia may face by hosting US defence personnel and equipment at facilities here.
Questions must be answered – for example, on the inherent dangers of nuclear-powered and armed vessels in our ports; uranium-based munitions for aircraft and tanks; the use of hazardous depleted uranium weaponry, and the possible adverse effects and ecological harm of the American military escalation in Australia. These questions should be vigorously debated in our Parliament and media as part of an informed, democratic process. http://www.smh.com.au/national/letters/iran-a-tragedy-of-the-wests-own-making-20111113-1ndx3.html#ixzz1djIWVyRf
Indonesia not happy about planned big USA military base in Darwin
”Psychologically, it is not easy to have such a big presence on the doorstep, people in Indonesia still look at Australia with suspicion about hidden motives,”
Indonesia wants answers on US military plans, The Age, Daniel Flitton and Jessica Wright, November 12 2011 INDONESIA will seek an urgent explanation from Prime Minister Julia Gillard about plans to station US marines in Darwin, questioning the need for a military build-up on the country’s doorstep. Continue reading
Kevin Rudd’s contradictory messages on nuclear disarmament
Anti-nuclear Rudd urged US to keep arsenal for deterrence, The Age, Daniel Flitton November 14, 2011 KEVIN Rudd’s public ambition as prime minister to help rid the world of nuclear weapons was secretly tempered by private messages urging the US to preserve a ”reliable” and ”credible” atomic arsenal, newly declassified documents reveal.
Mr Rudd made a campaign against nuclear weapons a hallmark of his foreign policy while in the top job, saying Australia had to reclaim credentials for the ”ultimate objective of a nuclear weapons-free world”. This chimed with hopes of then incoming US President Barack Obama, who pledged to put nuclear disarmament back on the global agenda.
But reflecting the dilemma of pushing for disarmament but not fully trusting other countries to keep any such bargain, Australia urged its American ally to hang on to its nuclear weapons for ”deterrence”…..
The submission is one of a bundle of secret defence documents obtained by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons under freedom of information law. Defence officials acknowledged the human cost of a nuclear war would be ”staggering” but said without a time frame for eradicating atomic weapons – and with ”complex and prolonged” negotiations likely in the meantime – the nuclear option should remain. Continue reading
While USA sells nuclear technology to China, Australia gets USA military base against China
The full range of U.S. naval ships is expected to rotate through the joint facilities, stopping for exercises as well as repairs and other shore work. Naval aircraft also will have access to a base in Darwin.
The increased U.S. presence will be a rotating force, one person said. In September, Australian Defence Minister Stephen Smith said the enhance cooperation would be “more ships in, ships out; more planes in, planes out; more troops in, troops out.”….
U.S. to Build Up Military in Australia, WSJ, By LAURA MECKLER, WASHINGTON, 12 Nov 11—President Barack Obama will announce an accord for a new and permanent U.S. military presence in Australia when he visits next week, a step aimed at countering China’s influence and reasserting U.S. interest in the region, said people familiar with his plans. Continue reading
Australia’s Maralinga veterans and Aboriginals paid the price for nuclear bomb testing
Finally they can heal together, Adelaide Now, Bryan Littlely, From:The Advertiser, November 12, 2011 THEY are snapshots from a secret time. An insight into a life in one of the harshest and most secure places in Australia. The men who took these photographs at Maralinga during the series of British nuclear testing and clean-up from 1952 to 1967 carry them proudly. Most also carry another legacy of this land and the controversial atomic testing that went on here.
Cancers and other conditions linked to the radiation, plutonium, burilium-laced lands that were left after the testing has claimed the lives of many of the men who were at Maralinga. In 1985, a survey found that of the 12,500 people involved in the British nuclear testing program in Australia, 11,000 had died. Hundreds of Maralinga-Tjarutja people were also forced from their homeland during the testing.
Few of the veterans remain today but the handful who have gone back to Maralinga for the Remembrance Day reunion have done so with the blessing of the traditional owners, so the two groups of people for
whom Section 400 is so significant can heal together…. Australian Nuclear Veterans Association founder Avon Hudson, the Maralinga whistleblower and advocate for compensation claims for the men, said there were only about 50 members of that association left.
“We’re nearly buggered … most of our members are old buggers like me and we are dropping off the perch,” Mr Hudson, 74, said. “We can get a bit of healing coming back here. It brings back a lot of sad memories because almost all my mates are dead but it is mixed feelings because I have a lot of good memories, too.”…
“We were sent on to that Taranaki ground zero site to test some stuff… nobody knew it was contaminated,” he said…..
http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/finally-they-can-heal-together/story-e6frea83-1226193206591
Another USA military base for Australia
“This current global situation is characterised by John Bellamy Foster as “the attempts of Washington to restore and expand its global hegemony, using its military power to enhance its economic position”…….When imperial power starts to fade, as was the case with Britain’s in the early 20th century, it seems that Australian polticians’ response is to tie us ever closer to the sinking ship”….“potentially the deadliest period in the history of imperialism.” If we sow this wind in Darwin, then we’ll reap the whirlwind…..”
US Marines to have Darwin base: expert reactions, The Conversation, 11 November 2011, http://theconversation.edu.au/us-marines-to-have-darwin-base-expert-reactions-4260 The Labor Government will reportedly allow the US to permanently base American Marines in Darwin.
If this goes ahead, Australia will join a long list of countries around the world that host American soldiers, including former US colonies such as the Philippines and Cuba, its vanquished WWII foes, Japan and Germany, and scores of other countries. What does it mean for Australia?…
Dr Kelvin McQueen, Faculty of The Professions, School of Education, University of New England:
There are disturbing reports that the Gillard government is giving the US Marines a base in Darwin. Not since the Vietnam War will Australia have seen such an invasion of US miltary personnel into its territory. But it’s 35 years since that war ended, so what is the threat to both the US and Australia that necessitates a Marine base in our northern capital? Continue reading
1 This month
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