Jim Green
Friends of the Earth has condemned the irresponsible proposal from PM John Howard to sell uranium to India, which is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
As a nuclear weapons state outside the NPT, India is not bound by the treaty's disarmament commitments so the uranium sales would weaken the international nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation regime. Other countries would be more likely develop nuclear WMD arsenals and to withdraw from the NPT if uranium sales to non-NPT states becomes the norm.
NPT signatories agree to progress towards nuclear disarmament (in the case of weapons states) or to refrain from building nuclear weapons (in the case of non-weapons states).
The US deal to sell nuclear technology to India is a commercial decision which should be rejected by the Howard government. Howard has disingenuously claimed that the deal is positive because it places some of India's facilities under safeguards inspections. As a non-NPT state, India now has a free hand to upgrade its nuclear WMD arsenal while enjoying nuclear technology transfers from the US.
Friends of the Earth is also campaigning against the Howard government's ongoing uranium export negotiations with China. It will be impossible to ensure that Australian uranium does not end up in Chinese nuclear weapons. It has an active nuclear weapons program and a bad record of transferring nuclear weapons technology to Pakistan, North Korea and Iran. Uranium sales to China would set a poor precedent. Will we now sell uranium to all repressive, secretive, military states, just some or just China?
Last year, an International Atomic Energy Agency survey of 1020 Australians found that 56% considered the IAEA's "safeguards" inspection system ineffective. A Morgan Newspoll of 662 Australians last year found that 70% opposed an expansion of the uranium mining industry. The poll found that 53% of Australians oppose uranium sales to China with just 31% in favour.
[Jim Green is the anti-nuclear campaigner for Friends of the Earth. For more information on uranium exports to China see <www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=4205>.]
From 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly, March 15, 2006.
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