You don’t have to oppose uranium mining to oppose exports to nuclear-armed India. All it takes is a strong desire not to have an atomic bomb dropped on your head ... or anyone else’s.
Thus critics of the plan to sell to India include uranium mining advocates Ron Walker, a former Australian diplomat and former Chair of the International Atomic Energy Agency; Paul Barratt, former Secretary of the Defence Department; and Kelvin Thomson, a member of Labor’s Right faction and Chair of Parliament’s treaties committee.
The main concern is that India has not signed, and will not sign, the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Needless to say, that sets an alarming precedent. If the response to the India’s nuclear weapons program is to reward it with sales of uranium and nuclear technology, then others are sure to follow.
The claim that India can be treated as a ‘special case’ has already gone down the gurgler with China using that precedent to justify the supply of more reactors to Pakistan – another nuclear weapons state outside the NPT.
Some argue that Australia should sell uranium to India because the US and handful of other countries have gone down that path. That’s the drug dealer’s defence. A large majority of the world’s countries oppose nuclear trade with countries that refuse to sign the NPT – it is a long-standing principle and it has undoubtedly helped to curb proliferation.
Of course, it’s a big ask to require India to dismantle its nuclear arsenal as a condition for uranium exports. But disarmament is not without precedent. South Africa gave up its nuclear weapons, as did three ex-Soviet states – Belarus, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan. There are other relevant historical precedents including numerous aborted nuclear arms races; Argentina and Brazil, for example, agreed to abandon their pursuit of nuclear weapons in the late 1980s.
Plan B would be to require India to curb – but not immediately abandon – its nuclear weapons program. The logical conditions would be an end to the production of fissile material for weapons; signing and ratifying the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty; and an end to India’s development and testing of nuclear-capable missiles.
But Julia Gillard and Martin Ferguson want to pursue the third of those two options – uranium sales to India with no conditions whatsoever. They are surrendering to the bullying and belligerence of India’s military and nuclear hawks. Two spineless, gutless politicians who frequently congratulate themselves on taking tough’ decisions.
We like to think of Australia as a responsible middle power punching above our weight on nuclear non-proliferation, but now we’re being asked to endorse uranium sales to a country which is every bit as culpable as its neighbours in fanning the South Asian nuclear arms race. And to do so with no reciprocal conditions on India whatsoever.
We like to think of Australia as a responsible middle power punching above our weight on nuclear non-proliferation, yet we rely on and actively support the nuclear weapons program of the US; we fan proliferation risks and tensions in North-East Asia by allowing Japan to stockpile plutonium; we may soon be fanning the nuclear arms race in South Asia; and, for good measure, plans are already in train to sell uranium to at least one undemocratic Middle Eastern state – the United Arab Emirates – with more to come. We were planning uranium sales to the Shah of Iran months before his overthrow in 1979.
Kevin Rudd has warned repeatedly of the fracturing of the nuclear non-proliferation regime. He should know – he has been fracturing it by supporting all of the above policies either as Prime Minister or Foreign Minister. The day before Gillard’s announcement on India, secret Defence Department documents were released revealing that Rudd privately urged the US to preserve a ‘‘reliable’’ and ‘‘credible’’ nuclear arsenal. No pressure on the US to abide by its disarmament obligations under the NPT. No worries, mate. My name’s Kevin and I’m here to help fracture the non-proliferation regime.
Australia has sometimes been called a White Knight of nuclear non-proliferation; now the term is being used with heavy sarcasm.
How to turn things around? Public opinion is solid – two-thirds of Australians oppose uranium sales to nuclear weapons states, three-quarters believe nuclear disarmament should be a top priority, and most believe (with good reason) that the safeguards system is ineffective.
But that opinion isn’t reflected in parliament and it isn’t reflected in the media. Why is it that the politicians can trot out disingenuous and dishonest arguments without being held to account? Take the argument about the ‘hypocrisy’ of selling to undemocratic China but not to democratic India. Isn’t that an argument to rethink uranium sales to undemocratic China – all the more so since it is flouting its NPT disarmament obligations and jailing nuclear whistle-blowers? Is it too much to ask of the media to at least put those questions to the politicians?
Strict safeguards? Safeguards in China are tokenistic, safeguards in Russia (another customer country) are very nearly non-existent, and safeguards in India will be either tokenistic or non-existent. The International Atomic Energy Agency has neither the resources nor the inclination to seriously apply safeguards in nuclear weapons states.
So why don’t journalists challenge politicicans when they trot out the lie about “strict” safeguards “ensuring” peaceful use of our uranium exports?
Michelle Grattan thought it was a great idea to sell uranium to China because it had signed the relevant agreements; now she thinks it’s a great idea to sell to India though it hasn’t signed the relevant agreements. Go figure. Greg Sheridan can’t see what all the fuss is about since strict safeguards would apply in India as they do in China and Russia. The Murdoch-Fairfax two-paper duopoly is as dangerous and damaging to Australia’s national interest – and to the billions living in the shadow of the South Asian nuclear arms race – as the two-party duopoly.
All the media think we’re going to make $1,700 million annually by selling uranium to India, which means we’re going to supply India with its entire uranium demand 19 times over – fancy that! Try $20 million, a 0.007 percent increase in national export revenue.
So there we have it – government and industry lies repeated ad nauseum with little or no scrutiny, and precious little understanding or explanation of the very serious proliferation issues at stake.
As Ron Walker recently said: “I am horrified that the media have not explained the enormity of this proposal.” And he’s pro-uranium.
Dr Jim Green is the national nuclear campaigner with Friends of the Earth and author of a detailed briefing paper on uranium sales to India (www.choosenuclearfree.net/india).
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