Friday, 17 August, 2007

by Sarah Smiles, Katharine Murphy and Anne Davies
The Age

THE Howard Government has set the scene for a massive expansion of Australia's uranium industry, with the sealing last night of a controversial deal for exports to India and talks nearing completion for a new pact with Russia.

Increasing the focus on the nuclear issue before the federal election, Prime Minister John Howard announced the sale of uranium to India under "strict conditions", which he discussed in a phone conversation last night with his Indian counterpart, Manmohan Singh.

At the same time, Government officials confirmed that a new agreement to sell uranium to Russia could be signed next month during the visit of President Vladimir Putin to Australia. The deal will pave the way for Australian uranium to fuel Russian reactors for the first time.

Announcing the deal with India, the Government said it would include a bilateral safeguards agreement to ensure Australia uranium was only used for peaceful purposes.

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has also said Australia will sell uranium to India if it agrees to put two-thirds of its existing nuclear power plants, and any new facilities, under United Nations supervision.

But the Government has been forced to fend off questions about whether there are sufficient safeguards to sell uranium to a country outside the international treaty on non-proliferation.

There was also controversy over the issue yesterday in India, after a declaration by the Bush Administration that the United States will scrap its planned nuclear co-operation agreement with Delhi if the Singh Government conducts a nuclear test, according to local press reports.

The Age reported this week that India's chief scientific adviser, Dr Rajagopala Chidambaram, said India and not the world community would decide which reactors to open for inspections. "Whatever reactors we put under safeguards will be decided at India's discretion."

Asked about Dr Chidambaram's comments yesterday, Mr Howard said he would call his Indian counterpart to allay concerns about the strength of the safeguards. "I believe the sort of conditions we have in mind will meet any concerns on which those points are based," he said.

But the deal with India has drawn a strong rebuke from the leading nuclear non-proliferation research and advocacy group, the Arms Control Association, which has accused Australia of "flagrantly contradicting" its international stand on nuclear non-proliferation.

Labor also stepped up political pressure on the Government over the India deal and its ambitions to introduce nuclear power in Australia, asking why it was supporting plebiscites on Queensland council amalgamations but not on the location of future reactors. Mr Howard said the location of reactors would be determined by commercial decisions in the future.

"The Prime Minister has now put Australians on notice that their wishes will be ignored," Labor environment spokesman Peter Garrett said.

The planned deal with Russia follows negotiations in Moscow in May. Under a 1990 agreement, Russia has processed Australian uranium for other countries but not for its own use.

The new agreement follows Russia's decision to separate its civil and military nuclear programs last year. This includes putting its civil facilities under the International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards agreement.

Russian ambassador Alexander Blokhin said the nuclear agreement entailed "co-operation in the field of peaceful atomic energy."

Academics have raised concerns that Australia's exports could free up Russia to sell its own weapons-grade uranium to rogue states. "Does that then allow the Russians to export to other third states?" said Donald Rothwell, Professor of International Law at the Australian National University.

But Andrew Davies, of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said the exports were not problematic because Russia was a signatory to the Non-proliferation Treaty and had an existing bilateral safeguards agreement with Australia.