Today is the 60th anniversary of China’s one-party communist state — a fitting time to consider Australia’s role in supplying China with uranium and the associated impacts of the nuclear industry, within China and in terms of Australia’s non-proliferation commitments.
The expanded Roxby Downs uranium and copper mine being proposed by BHP would see Australia selling uranium-infused bulk copper concentrate for processing in China, transferring more than one million tonnes a year of radioactive waste and thousands of tonnes of uranium.
In opening up these markets, Australia is abandoning obligations that it has agreed to under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) by supplying uranium to a nuclear weapons state that fails to comply with the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).
China is modernising — rather than eliminating — its nuclear arsenal and has so far failed to ratify the CTBT. On these grounds alone, Australia should not be dealing in uranium to such a state, but that is just the tip of the iceberg.
Australians should be asking whether it is appropriate to be trading uranium with a one-party state that clearly fails to comply with international human rights obligations and treats dissenting voices within its nuclear industry to forced incarceration.
In Gansu Province in north-west China, a former uranium mine worker and whistleblower Sun Xiaodi and his daughter, Sun Dunbai, are languishing in a forced labour camp since July this year when a Chinese court sentenced them for “criminal acts that endangered state security”.
Their crimes include inciting the public with libellous slogans including “nuclear pollution” and “human rights violation”.
Sun Xiaodi is a former worker at No.792 Uranium Mine, a base of production of nuclear material in Gansu Province. Since 1988 he has repeatedly travelled to Beijing to petition the government to end the corruption that saturates China’s nuclear industry and spoken out for the rights of the mines workers.
If this is how the Chinese government treats workers who dare to speak up, how can Australia conscionably supply uranium — one of the most dangerous substances of earth — to such a country that fails to meet the basic standards of transparency, accountability, democracy and respect for human rights that Australians take for granted.
If we do so, are we not then complicit in nuclear risks and in suppression of human rights in China? Australian uranium will effectively disappear off the safeguards radar on arrival in China — a country where the military is inextricably linked to the civilian nuclear sector.
The first shipment of BHP uranium from the existing Roxby Downs mine has recently left Australian ports — China-bound.
Far from being “one of the most dangerous substances of earth”, uranium represents about the only serious alternative to carbon to fuel China and India. Rather than belatedly trying to stop China becoming a nuclear state, rescuing the greenhouse should be the most visible activity of the Australian Conservation Foundation. The human rights plaint would have more credibility if it came from Amnesty International.
Excellent story James. Of course it’s a tad embarrassing to have the ACF convenor of the Mittagong Forum now pimping the federal ALP pro uranium export party as current Environment Minister.
Indeed when he’s not self censoring on Gorgon on a class 1 nature reserve at Barrow Island or our third worst oil leak and counting off NW Australia, he’s taking the pay off PR profile on large reservation of Indigenous lands in the NT, under what level of threat we have no idea.
If the ACF can shake off the reality of Garrett’s footprint on your face with a distinct ALP figleaf design on the heel, then well and good. Really sometimes I think radon is too good for him compromising the whole green movement investment in the Green Party with his own ego and careerism.
Certainly my list is getting big of the ALP pimping the environment to the benefit of big business. Last weekend it was an advert of MacBank in good weekend with a fluffy on it. Not to mention the “land bribe” according the environment court at Catherine Hill in the name of trade off for a local national park link. And on and on it goes. Even Keating is getting in on the act claiming a natural bay and green slope at Darling Harbour East really to veil a ramp up of commercial floor space ratio. Rudd as king coal on climate.
Really the ALP are all sleaze, and the Coalition all redneck. They don’t have a sustainability bone in their body.
For those who see nuclear as the answer to climate change, I genuninely desire a real answer to these questions:
– what do you do with the waste?
– how do you safely transport the waste to where-ever it will go?
– how do you guarantee that no waste will ever go “missing” and be used in dirty bombs?
– how can it help in the fight against climate change if it takes at least 15 years to build a nuclear station and bring it on line?
All I have ever received in reply to these questions, is a change of discussion to the supposed advantages of nuclear power.
“No.792 Uranium Mine, a base of production of nuclear material in Gansu Province…”
Evidently China has uranium resources of its own. This is unsurprising, as U is not that uncommon in Earth’s crust. So stopping Australian U exports to China will achieve what, exactly, other than making nuclear power marginally more expensive for the Chinese?
We should stop selling our Uranium because it would be an ethical stand – setting a positive example in the world.
We talk about being a world leader and doing the right thing… or at least sometimes, some people talk about such things.
We want to lead the way on real action on climate change (some of us). Even if we do it before some of the bigger nations. We led the world some years back on serious economic reform… opening our shores to lots of imports as we dismantled tariffs etc. It might have been the wrong move economically (maybe it was the right move), but Australia stepped up and did it before a lot of other nations did it. And i cost us a bit. We talk about protecting the environment of Antartica and leading by example.
Leading by example… novel idea hey. I guess if there is money to be made, why bother?
You know, when slavery was big, that same kind of argument is what some people said to Wilberforce: why end it? If Britain ends it others will just do it. And Britain will lose trade and maybe lose some power in the world as a result. The French will just fill the gap! They will make the money and get power from it.
But Britain led the way and others eventually followed.
In the end whether it is slavery or uranium or fighting climate change or protecting our part of Antartica or not whaling or protecting forests, or caring more for the poor, or helping our indigenous…. It is about moral courage and doing the right thing. It is about stepping up to the plate and being a good example in the world. It is about showing others that we can do it, we can afford it, and it is better for the world as well.
Honestly: it is about time we were led by real leaders, not just economists!