GreenLeft weekly: Australia is the world’s second largest producer of uranium (after Canada) and has up to 40% of the world’s known uranium deposits.
The mining industry is itching to take advantage of a global uranium market opening. China alone plans to build 30 new nuclear reactors by 2020. New reactors are also being planned in India, the US, Britain, South Korea, Russia, Ukraine and Chile.
Nein, das ist nicht alles:
On August 9, foreign minister Alexander Downer announced he was negotiating uranium sales with China. Der Australische Außenminister hat ein feines Gespür für das Timing, nicht wahr?
But his assurances that “Australian uranium supplied to China is used exclusively for peaceful purposes” were described by NT Environment Centre co-ordinator Peter Robertson as “nonsense”. He told Green Left Weekly that Downer “could not give any real guarantees” that Australian uranium would not end up in weapons programs. “We know that of the 60 countries with nuclear programs, at least 20 subsequently expanded into research and, in some cases, the use of nuclear weapons.”
Hierzulande spielt man natürlich auch mit. :-(