BHP to ship uranium as China celebrates one party state
Date: 1-Oct-2009
As China celebrates the 60th anniversary of its one party communist state, a whistleblower is languishing in jail after exposing nuclear industry corruption and contamination and BHP Billiton is preparing its first uranium shipment to China from Olympic Dam.
As China celebrates the 60th anniversary of its one party communist state, a whistleblower is languishing in jail after exposing nuclear industry corruption and contamination and BHP Billiton is preparing its first uranium shipment to China from Olympic Dam.
“As Chinese tanks again drive down avenues to Tiananmen Square, BHP must explain how it will guarantee that Australian uranium in China will not end up assisting China’s nuclear weapons program,” said ACF campaigner David Noonan.
“The truth is BHP’s uranium will disappear off the safeguards radar on arrival in China, where the military jointly runs nuclear facilities and the courts act as agents of the state to jail whistleblowers and silence dissent.
“China is a non-transparent and authoritarian one party state where the informal nuclear watchdogs that are so important in the West – independent media, free trade unions and effective non-government organisations – are absent or constrained.”
Nuclear whistleblower Sun Xiaodi and his daughter Sun Dunbai have been jailed in Gansu Province for endangering state security by speaking publicly about “nuclear pollution” and “human rights violations” and for providing information to overseas media about the management and decommissioning of a uranium mine.
“If plans to sell uranium from Olympic Dam and sell uranium-infused bulk copper concentrate to China proceed, Australia’s international responsibilities shall be seriously compromised to suit BHP Billiton’s commercial interests,” Mr Noonan said.
“A federal treaties committee recently decided Australia should not export uranium to Russia. China also fails the key test of strengthened nuclear safeguards and should be disqualified from receiving Australian uranium.
“Complete separation of the military from the civilian nuclear sector must be a precondition to all Australia’s uranium sales.”
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