All-clear for nukes deal with Russia
The Age
Friday March 19, 2010
THE federal government has cleared the way to sell Australian uranium to Russia €” rejecting fears that the nuclear material could find its way into atomic weapons.In a long-awaited response to a report calling for Australia to delay ratifying a Howard-era treaty with Russia, the government said yesterday that there was only a remote chance Australian uranium would be diverted to weapons programs.Anti-nuclear campaigners blasted the response, accusing Labor of ignoring the 2008 recommendations by Federal Parliament's treaty committee.In a 13-page response, the government said it was satisfied that safeguards built into the estimated $1 billion deal to sell uranium to Russia would ensure Australian nuclear material would be used appropriately."The government permits supply of Australian uranium only where it is satisfied the uranium will be used exclusively for peaceful purposes," the government said in its response.It said Russia had stopped the production of fissile material €” the highly enriched uranium used in nuclear weapons €” and had ample stockpiles in its existing weapons."The risk they might divert nuclear material subject to safeguards from civil programs to nuclear weapons programs is remote," the government said.The decision to clear the way for yellowcake sales to Russia is bound to renew the focus on Australia's refusal to sell uranium to India, another deal overturned by the Rudd government soon after it won power.India has made plain it believes Labor is discriminating against it by refusing Delhi access to Australian uranium stocks while agreeing to sell to countries such as China.Labor MP Kelvin Thomson, who chairs the treaties committee, had previously warned that Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who signed the 2007 deal with former prime minister John Howard in Sydney, would not care about Australia's attitude to the safeguards."I think that we could supply uranium to him and if he changed his mind about the uses to which he was going to put it, I don't think we'd have any effective comeback at all," Mr Thomson said in September 2008 when the committee released its report.The committee's main concern centred on the lack of international inspections of Russian nuclear facilities by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).The report also came amid heightened tension over Russia's war with neighbouring Georgia.But yesterday Mr Thomson said the government had made a serious and considered response to the committee's concerns. "I think the main area where I'd be more comfortable is if IAEA inspectors did go to Russia," he said."The IAEA only inspects the non-nuclear weapons states, and it's my view that this should change."But Mr Thomson said Australia had made a request for further IAEA inspections and although these were unlikely to go ahead, that did not mean the deal should be scuppered.The government response also stated Russian troops had withdrawn from positions deep within Georgia and cited moves by the United States and Russia to strike a fresh agreement on reducing nuclear warheads.But nuclear activists said Russia could still not be trusted with Australian uranium, warning that the nuclear material could be diverted to third countries, such as Iran."The Russia nuclear sector is as unreformed as ever," said David Noonan of the Australian Conservation Foundation. He said nuclear facilities continued to be run by the Russian military with little oversight.Foreign Minister Stephen Smith and Resources Minister Martin Ferguson said a decision on final ratification of the deal was yet to be made.Australian Uranium Association executive director Michael Angwin said he was yet to study the report carefully but it looked to be a considered and reasonable judgment.
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