(More Australian news at nuclear news Australia )
Australia may supply uranium to India for JV power plants
indian express.con. Aug 07, 2009 Cairns:
India expressed its interest in having civil nuclear cooperation with Australia amid indications that the two countries are likely to sign an energy agreement in November under which Australia may supply uranium for joint venture power plants.
Australia’s policy of not supplying uranium to countries that have not signed the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) was noted by External Affairs Minister S M Krishna who had discussions on a wide variety of bilateral subjects with Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and his counterpart Stephen Smith.
…………………Rudd is expected to visit India in November when the two countries are likely to sign an “Energy Declaration” for generation of nuclear power for which his country may supply uranium.
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 for China, disadvantage for aborigines
Christina Macpherson 9 Sept 09
Today’s news mix shows where the Rudd government’s priorities lie, and where they get their policy from.
I guess that the uranium mining companies designed the new uranium royalties bill. After all, everybody knows that the commercial nuclear power industry is in terminal illness. Also the uranium industry could collapse almost instantly, in the event of a nuclear accident. Therefore, let’s rip off the aborigines now, while the going’s good, and too bad, if the industry all goes sour for them later.
Only in nuclear weapons dictatorships like China is the nuclear industry more secure. As government and Ziggy Switkowski delight in China’s uranium appetite, the uranium salesmen conveniently ignore China’s nuclear weapons buildup.
And with the help of the mainstream media, the Australian public sleeps on – “She’ll be right, mate”. But will she?
Rudd Uranium Bill suits miners, disadvantages aborigines
Rudd Uranium Bill will increase Aboriginal disadvantage
The Greens Scott LudlamTuesday 8th September 2009A Federal Bill that will apply a uniform royalty regime to all uranium mining projects in the Northern Territory will increase Aboriginal disadvantage, the Australian Greens say. Continue reading
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
Nuclear disarmament policies: Japan at odds with Australia over ‘pre-emptive strike’ issue
Australia, Japan in nuclear rift
The Age DANIEL FLITTON
September 4, 2009
AUSTRALIA and Japan are at loggerheads over the use of nuclear weapons in war, with Japan – the only country to have suffered atomic attack – determined, for now, to keep a broad deterrent role for the world’s deadly arsenal. Continue reading
Australia may supply uranium to India
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
Australia’s new uranium mine linked to arms sales and spying
The company with the right contacts
The Brisbane Times, Ben Cubby, 30 July 09
GENERAL ATOMICS, the company behind the nation’s newest uranium mine, has been patiently lobbying Australian politicians for more than a decade to encourage it to allow mining, to develop nuclear reactors and buy high-tech weapons.
The company has ferried members of the US Congress, their families and aides to Australia for high-level talks. It has paid for Labor MPs to travel to the United States to see its weapons and nuclear reactors first-hand, as well as hosting taxpayer funded trips……………………………………
To put its case for more mines and more weapons in Canberra, the company uses Hawker Britton, a lobbying firm that includes many former ALP staffers and MPs.
But among the biggest supporters of uranium mining expansion is the South Australian Premier, Mike Rann, who was on the Greenpeace executive that launched the Rainbow Warrior protest ship to try to block French nuclear weapons tests in 1972……………………………….
General Atomics flew a group from the US Congress to Australia, accompanied by company executives, to persuade the Federal Government to buy the company’s Predator unmanned aircraft………………………….
As well as its interest in unmanned spy planes, General Atomics has employed human spies. Last year it was caught hiring a former undercover police officer turned private investigator to infiltrate Australian environment groups and report on their actions. The former officer was posing as a Kurdish refugee and feeding information back to General Atomics.
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/the-company-with-the-right-contacts-20090729-e1lk.html
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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Fraud background of 4 Mile uranium mine’s owner
Arms maker behind uranium mine settled fraudulent pricing case
The Brisbane Times, Nick OMalley and Ben Cubby
July 30, 2009
THE arms manufacturer that received approval through an Australian subsidiary for a new uranium mine in central Australia this month was sued for fraudulently hiking uranium prices and manipulating costs at a neighbouring mine.
Neal Blue, owner and chairman of General Atomics, was accused in the proceedings of instructing executives at his Australian subsidiary, Heathgate Resources, to prepare false reports for customers, telling them costs at Heathgate’s Beverley uranium mine were higher than anticipated, and production lower……………………….
The Illinois District Court case was settled last year. One of General Atomics’s customers, Exelon, received $US41 million from the company. It is estimated Mr Blue made $US200 million by breaking the contracts and selling uranium on the spot market…………………………………
Four Mile mine will be owned by a General Atomics subsidiary, Quasar Resources, and an Australian-owned minerals explorer, Alliance Resources.
1 This month
of the week – Australians for War Powers Reform (AWPR)
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