Get a nuke weapon so that you won’t use a nuke weapon
International Commission on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament offers this change to a “no first use” policy – encouraging countries to make an initial statement to this effect – “the sole purpose of the possession of nuclear weapons is to deter the use of such weapons – “
Rather like giving your little kid a gun, and saying – “Well, I’m giving you this gun so that you will never use a gun..”
Seems to me that the real purpose of this commission is to further the sales of uranium and of “peaceful” nuclear technology.
Push for Australian nuclear bomb is revived
Nation given N-bomb warning * Christian Kerr The Australian * December 14, 2009 AUSTRALIA may be forced to acquire nuclear weapons to tackle deteriorating Asian security, a government-funded defence think tank has warned. Continue reading
Mapping 7 major nuclear test sites in Australia
British nuclear test sites in Australia Virtual Globetrotting Maps 9 Dec 09 British nuclear tests at Maralinga occurred between 1955 and 1963 at the Maralinga site, part of the Woomera Prohibited Area, in South Australia. Continue reading
Australia’s hypocrisy over nuclear disarmament
The Forgotten Nightmare: Global Cooling
By Robin Davis
21 October, 2009
Countercurrents.orgHere in Australia, advocates of uranium mining and export claim that this gives us a more credible voice in the world arena than we would otherwise have. They say our position as the largest source of uranium and the second largest exporter after Canada makes us more effective in preventing nuclear proliferation than we would otherwise be. In other words, by selling the stuff from which nuclear weapons are made, we are helping to stop the spread of nuclear weapons. Continue reading
Raytheon – profits, depleted uranium and war crimes
Support the EDO Decommissioners – resisting war crimes is not a crime UK 19 Oct 09 “……………Raytheon should be in the dock they are the worlds biggest producer of missiles and poisoned countless civilians and soldiers with Depleted Uranium. Continue reading
Australia to be part of global weapons industry
SUPPORTING AUSTRALIAN DEFENCE INDUSTRY TO ENTER GLOBAL MARKETS Australian Government Department of Defence The Minister for Defence Personnel, Materiel and Science, Greg Combet, today welcomed the establishment of Raytheon Australia’s Industry Development Unit (IDU). Continue reading
Maralinga atomic test site unsafe, aborigines affected
Coober Pedy Regional Times Maralinga Anniversary October 15, 1953 – 1967 and nuclear veteran’s website is closed down. “…………..October 15 is the anniversary of the first nuclear test at Maralinga, Totem 1.– the beginning of atomic testing in Australia 1953 – 1967, and the contamination of traditional Kokatha Lands in the Western Desert of South Australia. The Action Australia page on the ANVAR website contained the details. Continue reading
International Disarmament meeting will endorse “peaceful” nuclear energy
Japan – The Fourth Meeting of the International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament
“……The fourth meeting of the International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament, co-chaired by Hon. Yoriko Kawaguchi, former Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan, and the Hon. Gareth Evans Continue reading
Australia does not need the USA’s “nuclear deterrent”
A nuclear challenge to the world On Line opinion By Sue Wareham – 30 September 2009 “…President Obama’s chairing of the UN Security Council on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation served to focus the nuclear spotlight where it is most needed, on the Council’s five permanent members. Continue reading
Still much to fear from nuclear
The Age, David Noonan, 29 Sept 09
Nuclear weapons raise serious, unresolved questions about Australia’s uranium exports. The lesson from Iran is that nuclear technology and materials can be – and are – used for dual purposes. The weapons dangers in uranium enrichment are not unique to Iran. All facilities in the nuclear fuel chain can be used to make weapons.
The military remain inextricably linked to the civilian nuclear sector in Iran, in Russia, in China and in India. All these countries fail the test of strengthened nuclear safeguards and should be disqualified from receiving Australian uranium. And in an age of terrorism every nuclear reactor is a potential target that can be used as a weapon against the community. The inherent safety and security risks of nuclear are strong reasons to phase out Australia’s uranium exports. These risks should be front of mind when governments consider BHP Billiton’s plans to expand Olympic Dam to make Australia the global uranium quarry to fuel the nuclear industry.
Australia: no uranium to India
`No Uranium supply to India’
Central Chronicle September 25, 2009 United News of India
New Delhi, Sept 24:
Australia today reaffirmed its stand of not supplying uranium to India but said it favoured cooperation in energy sector specifically Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) and coal. Continue reading
US missile shield partly scrapped: role of Australia’s Pine Gap not clear
US to scrap part of missile shield
BRENDAN NICHOLSON, CANBERRA
September 18, 2009
THE US has abandoned key parts of its planned global anti-ballistic missile system, apparently to avoid offending Russia.
The Wall Street Journal said that the Poland and Czech Republic sections of the system would be shelved after a review ordered by US President Barack Obama.
It is not yet clear what that means for plans for the Asian sections of the system and joint experimental work being carried out by Australia, Japan and the US. That work is intended to thwart North Korea’s plans to develop nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.
In September 2007, then defence minister Brendan Nelson told Parliament the joint Australian-US facility at Pine Gap provided information on ballistic missile launches of interest to Australia and could be used in any US missile defence system.
”As such, this would be a continuation of a ballistic missile early-warning partnership that we have shared with the United States for over 30 years,” Dr Nelson said.
At the time Ron Huisken, a senior fellow from the Australian National University’s Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, warned that Australia’s collaboration on missile defence with Japan and the US could agitate the Chinese as well as the Russians.
Uranium sales to China ramped up as China’s nuke weapons ramp up
China prepares to show off nuclear missiles- South Australia and China move forward together
China will parade five new missiles in a show of military prowess on the 60th anniversary of Communist Party rule. Continue reading
Olympic Dam and Four Mile uranium mines will promote nuclear weapons spread
The terror of Hiroshima
ONLINE opinion, Dr Sue Wareham, 6 August 09
“………………….The Hiroshima bomb was a very small weapon by today’s standards, and yet an estimated 90,000 people died immediately and many tens of thousands more died slowly of burns, multiple injuries, radiation sickness or, later, cancer.
For nearly six and a half decades, the survivors’ message has been clear: Hiroshima never again. And yet not only do these worst of all weapons of terror remain, but they are now held by nine nations. One of the reasons is in our own backyard – uranium.
As our sales of uranium, the raw material for bomb fuel, appear set to increase with a massive expansion of the Olympic Dam mine, and the proposed opening of the Four Mile mine, both in South Australia, it is time to seriously examine the weapons proliferation record of the industry that our exports support.
In the 1970s, the Ranger Uranium Environmental Inquiry found that “the nuclear power industry is unintentionally contributing to an increased risk of nuclear war”. That remains as true today as it was then.
The need to ensure that nuclear weapons are not used again, as articulated by the people of Hirohima, is making a political comeback, spurred on particularly by President Obama’s commitment to “seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons”. Nuclear weapons abolition is both essential and feasible. Feasible, that is, if all existing fissile material is brought under strict international control and we stop creating more. That means leaving uranium in the ground.
Australia, with our large uranium reserves, is blessed with leverage in this issue. Even if mining and export were to continue at some level however, there is one thing at least that should be non-negotiable. No Australian uranium should go to any nation that has nuclear weapons.
That would include a number of our current customers – the US, the UK, France and China. All of them, in addition to Russia which does not (yet) receive Australian uranium, are in violation of their Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) obligation to disarm. Do we really want to supply fissile material to NPT non-compliers who continue to threaten mass destruction? That question should concern the Australian government, especially with the NPT Review coming up in early 2010.
While the nuclear industry has been plagued by a litany of major problems, its most grievous failing lies in its deliberate obfuscation regarding the civilian-military nuclear links. Its glib reassurances might help sell uranium, but at the cost of the nuclear weapons free world that has eluded us since the terror of Hiroshima.
http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=9269&page=0
Neal Blue: U.S. arms salesman in charge of South Australian uranium mines
Digging dirt with a sledgehammer
The weapons manufacturer who converted Labor’s staunchest opponents to nuclear development has a controversial past, write Nick O’Malley and Ben Cubby…………………………….
………………..Neal Blue’s single-mindedness emerged during the battle over a Blue-owned uranium processing plant on an Indian reservation in Oklahoma.
After a series of radioactive spills a nine-legged frog was discovered outside the yellowcake factory.
A government investigation eventually established the company had known for years that radioactive material was leaking and that radioactivity in water around the plant was at levels 35,000 times higher than US federal laws permitted………………………………….
As General Atomics grew, Blue kept an eye on Australia. One of his former employees recalls that in the late 1980s Blue was sure the future was nuclear and Australia was going to be a key part of it.
He went about buying pastoral leases sitting on uranium deposits in South Australia and the Northern Territory, gambling that bans on uranium would one day be lifted.
He was right. In 1990 Blue established Heathgate Resources to operate the new Beverley uranium mine, near Lake Frome in South Australia……………………..The South Australian Government has recorded 59 spills of radioactive material on the surface at the site,……………..
there is no requirement it decontaminate the site when mining ceases.
The environmental impact assessment for Blue’s nearby Four Mile mine, approved this month by the federal Environment Minister, Peter Garrett, similarly carries no such requirement.
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/digging-dirt-with-a-sledgehammer-20090729-e1lj.html
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1 This month
of the week – Australians for War Powers Reform (AWPR)
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