Australia offers China uranium
Dated 9/8/2005
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Sydney, Aug 9 (DPA) Australia has offered to sell uranium to China in the light of Beijing's plans to quadruple nuclear-energy production by 2020. Foreign Minister Alexander Downer announced Tuesday that negotiations on a nuclear cooperation agreement would begin to provide a framework for possible exports.
Downer said the agreement would provide safeguards to ensure Australian uranium supplied to China was used "exclusively for peaceful purposes".
Australia has about 40 percent of the world's easily recoverable reserves of uranium. Current exports go to the US, Japan, South Korea and members of the European Union.
Downer welcomed China's commitment to reducing the amount of power it generates from coal.
"Diversifying from fossil fuels will result in lower greenhouse gas and particulate emissions," Downer said in a statement.
However, Greens MP Kerry Nettle condemned outright the export of uranium saying there was no environmentally sound way of disposing of nuclear waste.
"The Australian government is not looking at the concerns in Australia and elsewhere that we need to remove ourselves from this destructive industry," she said. "It doesn't provide any answers to greenhouse-gas emissions. It simply creates another problem."
