 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
North Korean Test Hit Chances Of Australia Selling Uranium To India
Sydney (AFP) Oct 11, 2006 Australia on Wednesday backed away from indications it might change policy and sell uranium to nuclear power India, as North Korea's atomic test raised fears of a regional arms race. "We're not planning to sell uranium to India," Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said flatly in a speech to an energy security conference. Last month, Downer said Australia was considering whether to match a controversial US nuclear deal with India to allow Canberra to sell uranium to the New Delhi government. He said then that while cutting a deal with nuclear-armed India was not on the cards for the moment, it might happen in the future, despite the fact that New Delhi has not signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT). Australia, which holds 40 percent of the world's known uranium reserves, agreed earlier this year to sell the nuclear fuel to China, which has signed the NPT. Prime Minister John Howard, a close ally of the US, also said last month that the government was considering changing its policy of refusing to supply uranium to countries that have not signed the NPT. But North Korea's atomic bomb test may have dealt a serious blow to the passage of the deal between India and the US on civilian nuclear energy, analysts said. The US Congress gave its thumbs-up to the deal in July but the Senate is yet to vote on it, and North Korea's test is expected to provide ammunition for opponents of the arrangement. If the US-India deal falls through, it will almost certainly have a knock-on effect on Australia's attitude to supplying uranium to New Delhi. "We've made no decision to sell uranium to India," Downer told reporters Wednesday. "We have no plans to reconsider the issue at all." Australia's deal with China involves 20,000 tonnes of uranium a year from 2010 to meet the country's growing energy demands. Canberra said it was satisfied that safeguards were in place to ensure that China would not use the fuel in nuclear weapons.
Source: Agence France-Presse Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Related Links Civil Nuclear Energy Science, Technology and News Learn about nuclear weapons doctrine and defense at SpaceWar.com Learn about missile defense at SpaceWar.com Civil Nuclear Energy Science, Technology and News Powering The World in the 21st Century at Energy-Daily.com
Russia To Discuss Nuclear Waste Disposal Projects With IAEA
Moscow (RIA Novosti) Oct 12, 2006Russia's federal nuclear power agency said Wednesday it would meet with officials from the UN nuclear watchdog later this week to discuss cooperation in scrapping Russian nuclear submarines, and building radioactive waste storage facilities. |
|
|
| The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2006 - SpaceDaily.AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA PortalReports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additionalcopyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement |
