'Uranium sale by Australia to India is practical' Tuesday, December 05, 2006 04:22 [IST]
Melbourne: "Australia
could sell uranium to India
without increasing the risks of weapons proliferation," a nuclear industry
report tabled in the federal parliament has said.
The report, from a bipartisan committee, finds sound reasons to allow an
exception to Australia's
export policy in order to permit uranium sales to India.
It says it is 'conceivable' that Australian uranium sales would not undermine
the non-proliferation regime.
But the report from the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Industry
and Resources stops short of recommending a change to Australia's current policy, which
prevents uranium sales to countries outside the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty,
The Age newspaper reported today.
Prime Minister John Howard has said that the policy may be changed in the
future, particularly in the wake of the recent nuclear co-operation agreement
between the US and India.
The report also calls for an expansion of uranium mining, the possible
development of enrichment and conversion facilities, and the removal of bans on
nuclear power plants.
It urges the industry to better educate the public about the sector y including
allowing schoolchildren to visit uranium mines.
The proposal has outraged the Australian Greens party whose energy spokesperson
Christine Milne said, "It seems that school students are to become the new
battleground in the Government's nuclear offensive."
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