[India, since the waiver granted by the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) on Sept 6 2008 to be allowed (re)entry into the global nuclear market at the initiative of the US under Bush, has understandably sewed up quite a few deals for import of uranium with a number of countries including Canada, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Namibia, Argentina.]
I/III. http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/australia-to-sign-uranium-trade-deal-with-india/article6382828.ece Updated: September 5, 2014 12:50 IST Australia to sign uranium trade deal with India AP Prime Minister Narendra Modi with his Australian counterpart Tony Abbott at the forecourts of Rashtrapati Bhawan, in New Delhi on Friday. Photo: V. Sudershan Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott is on a two-day visit to India and the agreement is expected to be signed on Friday evening. Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has met with his Indian counterpart on a two-day state visit during which they are expected to sign a deal to allow the export of uranium to New Delhi for use in power generation. The agreement is expected to be signed on Friday evening. Australia, which has almost a third of the world's known uranium reserves, imposes strict conditions on uranium exports and India's failure to sign the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) had long been a barrier to a deal. Both countries have been negotiating a so-called nuclear safeguards agreement with verification mechanisms since 2012 when a former Australian government agreed on civil nuclear energy cooperation with India that would eventually allow the export of Australian uranium. II/III. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-09-03/australia-tipped-to-sell-uranium-to-india-but-critics-hold-fears/5717512 India's drive toward nuclear future 'dangerous' as PM Tony Abbott prepares to sign deal on uranium sales 7.30 <http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/> By South Asia correspondent Stephanie March <http://www.abc.net.au/news/stephanie-march/2854868> Updated 5 Sep 2014, 4:25pm Prime Minister Tony Abbott's impending deal to sell Australian uranium to India has highlighted concerns over the South Asian country's lax regulation around nuclear energy. Canberra and New Delhi say the deal -- expected to be signed this week -- will be a boon for bilateral ties, with both governments keen on building closer relations. But many critics in India say the country does not have adequate infrastructure or regulation to cope with increasing use of the controversial fuel. India is not a signatory to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and does not have a fully independent nuclear regulator. Reports from India's Controller and Auditor General and Public Accounts Committee have criticised the country's nuclear watchdog -- the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board -- for being weak and unable to carry out its job of keeping the industry safe. Princeton University nuclear physicist MV Ramana told the ABC's 7.30 program that the dangers were great. "Given their operating record, while there has been no major incident so far, considering the way the plants are run, there is danger of a Fukushima-style disaster," he said. The Atomic Energy Regulatory Board is seen by some as an old boys' network. "The people who retire from the atomic energy commission, they come onto the Atomic Energy Regulatory [Board] and they are basically auditing their own friends. They are auditing their own work," said Abhijit Iyer Mitra, a nuclear expert at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi. Anti-nuclear activist SR Udayakumar said the secrecy adds to the suspicion. "If they were transparent, open, accountable and democratic in their functioning we wouldn't have this problem," he told 7.30. "We wouldn't be so suspicious and afraid. "They don't share any information with the public, they don't respect the great democratic heritage of this country." Children deformed, lower life expectancy near uranium mine India is looking to expand its nuclear power production from 4 per cent to 25 per cent in 2050, but some residents living near current uranium mining operations say the push for more nuclear power is coming at a huge cost to their health and livelihoods. Jaduguda is a town in India's east home to people of the Adivasi tribe. It is also next to a uranium mine run by the Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL). Studies have found children born in villages near the mining operations are twice as likely to have physical deformities as those living in similar communities 30 kilometres away. "Independent studies of the health status of people living near the uranium mines and mills have found both that there are physical deformities occurring at a much higher rate than control villages, which have a similar population but are a little bit further away ... as well as lung diseases coming in at a much higher rate among those who work in the mines and mills," Mr Ramana said. Jaduguda resident Mohammed Moin's 14-year-old son Yusuf is severely disabled. His body is stiff, his muscles wasted and he cannot walk without help. Mohammed said doctors ruled out polio and said the damage was caused while Yusuf was still in the womb. "One of my other children -- just six days old -- died after dark patches erupted on its body all of a sudden," Mohammed said. "With Yusuf, too, it seems that there was some poisoning or radiation that led to a birth defect." Neighbour Jobrani Acharya's three-year-old son, Surayadev, struggles to breathe and cannot sit without help. She does not know what is wrong with him and said she cannot afford to take him to hospital to find out. "I worry about what will happen when he grows older. What can we do for him? How do we cope with his situation? He is very young now but what will happen when he grows?" she said. The son of Jobrani's neighbour was born blind and mentally handicapped. The children were born in a hamlet less than two kilometres from the uranium mine's tailing ponds. The ponds are only partially fenced, allowing people and animals to move freely near the toxic waters. Studies have shown cancer rates are 50 per cent higher in the villages near the tailing pond and people are 20 per cent less likely to reach the average life expectancy for the rest of the state. The company denies there are health problems in the community and has not responded to 7.30's request for comment. "As far as I know, UCIL has offered no evidence that it has actually carried out any kind of detailed epidemiological studies," Mr Ramana said. "All it has done is made various assertions. "These assertions start with denial, saying there is no problem, or saying problems are due to malnutrition, the kind of thing that epidemiological studies rule out." Deal will generate goodwill towards Australia: expert The Australia-India uranium deal is expected to significantly improve relations between the two countries. Australia criticised India over rounds of nuclear testing carried out in 1974 and 1998 and for years New Delhi took offence at Australia's refusal to sell it uranium. Former Australian prime minister John Howard supported uranium sales to India but his successor Kevin Rudd did not. In 2011, under the leadership of Julia Gillard, the Labor Party lifted its ban on selling uranium to India. That change of heart is likely to generate a lot of goodwill in New Dehli. "It generates a whole load of soft power for Australia in India because it is constantly in the news and that is a good thing, coming in the news cycle, saying that Australia is a friend. All this [is] very, very good," Mr Iyer-Mitra said. "The second thing for Australia is it gives you a second market instead of just being hooked on the Chinese market." But Mr Udayakumar said Australia should think about more than the benefits. "This is dangerous," he said. "People of Australia really should think about our safety and wellbeing." Photo: Jaduguda is near a uranium mine run by the Uranium Corporation of India Limited. Photo: The family of Surayadev, 3, cannot afford to take him to hospital to get a diagnosis. (7.30) III. *IMMEDIATE USE SEPT5 2014* *PEOPLE FOR NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT* *AUST-INDIA URANIUM DEAL WILL FUEL SUBCONTINENTAL NUCLEAR ARMS RACE* Veteran nuclear disarmament campaigner John Hallam of People for Nuclear Disarmament and the Human Survival Project has labeled claims that Australian uranium will not fuel or help fuel a nuclear arms race in the Indian subcontinent as ridiculous and divorced from reality. According to Mr Hallam, "Blind Freddie can see that no matter what safeguards we may nominally place on Australian uranium that is sold to India, it will simply free up unsafeguarded Indian uranium - mined in the worlds worst and most unsafe uranium mines at Jaduguda - for weapons use." "The facts are that India has very limited uranium resources of its own, and to date it has had to use those for BOTH nuclear weapons use, and at the same time for use in its own indigenous nuclear reactors. This is one reason India wants our uranium so much. This shortage has placed considerable pressure on India's own production capacity, leading it to take safety shortcuts in an attempt to produce sufficient. It has also limited to some extent, India's ability to produce nuclear warheads." "However, if Australian uranium is now used in the just over 50% of India's reactors that are now subject to IAEA safeguards and designated as 'civil', unsafeguarded Indian uranium still produced in places like Jaduguda, can be reserved for use in India's nuclear weapons program, removing one limiting factor to the growth of Indian nuclear warheads." "India and Pakistan are currently engaged in a nuclear arms race, with Pakistan having somewhere between 110 and 120 warheads, and India just behind that number, somewhere between 100 and 110." "India and Pakistan have already come close to nuclear war at least twice, most recently in 2002-2003 in a year - long crisis that both governments later acknowledged as a close call." "An India-Pakistan nuclear war would create a prompt body - count of somewhere around 150 million, and could put as many as 2 billion people worldwide at risk of starvation in the 'nuclear autumn' that would follow from the burning of Indian and Pakistani cities." "Is this really the kind of trade Australia wants to make with a neighbor?" John Hallam 61-2-9810-2598 johnhallam2...@yahoo.com.au <https://mail.google.com/mail/h/1e6sr5yn2lpda/?&v=b&cs=wh&to=johnhallam2...@yahoo.com.au> -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. 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