Saturday, 21 July, 2007

by Sid Marris
The Australian

AUSTRALIA has not yet decided to join the US-led nuclear power fuel processing club, despite allocating $12.5 million for local researchers to join work on one of its pet projects.

As the nation with the world's biggest reserves of uranium, Australia should be part of global discussions on the development and policing of nuclear enrichment, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said.

But our co-operation would not be extended to accepting nuclear waste, he said, labelling green groups as "wackos" peddling conspiracy theories.

"You always get the wackos out there who have some theory - one of the more wacky theories I've heard is this is a secret plan to bring nuclear waste to Australia," he said.

No decision had been taken about joining the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership set up by US President George W. Bush in 2005, Mr Downer said.

But he confirmed there were talks about boosting a 25-year nuclear co-operation agreement after a request from the US Department of Energy.

Labor environment spokesman Peter Garrett said revelations about the discussions with a view to an announcement at the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation forum were "another sign of the Prime Minister's personal crusade for a nuclear-powered Australia".

"Instead of lining up a global climate change solution at APEC, John Howard wants to use it as a platform to turn Australia into a global radioactive dump," he said.

"The Howard Government's words simply do not match their actions, and they should not be trusted on nuclear issues."

The GNEP is designed to restrict the number of countries enriching uranium to existing players - the US, Britain, China, Russia and France.

Under the agreement, nuclear fuel would be shipped to feed energy-hungry developing countries and the spent fuel would be taken back to the supplier so it could not be reprocessed for use in nuclear weapons.

The aim is to prevent nuclear proliferation and promote a fuel source that does not produce greenhouse gases.

The project may also help India to get access to nuclear fuel rods for power stations, even though it is not a member of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

"We've had some preliminary talks with the Americans about it but we've nowhere near finalised our position and they haven't finalised theirs," Mr Downer said yesterday.