urg::: Yellowcake sales caution

[Justin Tutty]

NT News, Friday 9 September 2005

CANBERRA:

Australia would be selling uranium to a range of nuclear weapon states 
without adequate safeguards if it ramped up its yellowcake exports, a 
former diplomat has warned.

Richard Broinowski, A former ambassador to South Korea and a nuclear 
proliferation expert, said the current debate about nuclear energy in 
Australia was falling back on flawed arguments from the 1980s.

He said in reality it was about commercial pressure to sell a commodity 
- uranium - that was not worth the risk and which sold for little more 
than industrial salt.

Launching a report called 'Nuclear Power - No Solution to Climate 
Change', Professor Broinowski was backed by environmental groups and the 
Public Health Association.

Senior government ministers including Alexander Downer, Peter Costello 
and Brendan Nelson, senior Labor figures such as Martin Fergusson and 
Bob Carr, and many nuclear physicists have supported the view Australia 
should at least consider nuclear power generation as a climate friendly 
option.

Prof Broinowski said in spite of claims by Australian politicians, 
commercial policy had ruled Australia's policies in the extraction and 
export of uranium.

'Because of the nuclear brinkmanship now taking place along the 38th 
parallel, and North Korea saying it has nuclear weapons, we're in a very 
dangerous situation', he said.