Saturday, September 8, 2007

Russia to Buy Australian Uranium

Via Al-Jazeera.net -

Australia has signed a deal with Russia to export uranium to fuel Russia's nuclear power stations.

Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, finalised the sale shortly after arriving in Australia on Friday – the first Russian leader ever to visit the country.

Putin says his country will use the uranium for peaceful purposes, but Australian opposition politicians say he cannot be trusted.

They say that there is nothing to prevent Moscow from using the Australian uranium for nuclear weapons or selling it on to Iran.

Kerry Nettle, a senator of the opposition Green party, said: "There are a number of instances of Russia transferring nuclear fuel and nuclear technology to countries such as Iran."

"The primary danger is that by supplying Australian uranium to Russia nuclear plants, it frees up Russia to do whatever it pleases with its own deposits"

Greenpeace Australia also criticised the deal saying Russia's nuclear power industry was unsafe and the country had not ratified international agreements separating its military and civil nuclear programmes.

Steve Shallhorn, chief executive of the environmental group, said that if Russia was able to use Australian uranium in its nuclear power plants, it could use its own uranium deposits for other purposes, including weapons production and exports.

"The primary danger is that by supplying Australian uranium to Russia nuclear plants, it frees up Russia to do whatever it pleases with its own deposits," he said.

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