Nuclear weapons report way off course
Date: 16-Dec-2009
A new report ,Eliminating Nuclear Threats - A Practical Agenda for Global Policymakers is too short on weapons, too long on reactors and is a missed opportunity for Australian leadership on the urgent job of abolishing nuclear weapons, the Australian Conservation Foundation said today.
“Instead of seeing the great opportunities to lead on nuclear disarmament, this report has taken a defeatist attitude,” said ACF campaigner David Noonan.
“The report seems resigned to a future of increased proliferation and the growing threat of catastrophic nuclear attacks on civilian populations.”
The report, released today in Tokyo by the joint Australia-Japan International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation & Disarmament (ICNND), could scuttle momentum for nuclear abolition with its proposal to delay a Nuclear Weapons Convention and No First Use commitments until the mid 2020s.
“The Commission’s support for the spread of nuclear reactors, materials and technologies across the world is irresponsible and fails to recognise the reality of nuclear insecurity and increased proliferation pressures,” Mr Noonan said.
“An expanded civil nuclear industry means an increased risk of nuclear weapons proliferation.
“And the proposal to allow existing nuclear weapons states to retain their weapons sends a dangerous message to nuclear weapons hopefuls.
“Australia should phase out our uranium exports and stop fuelling the risk, acknowledged in this report, that terrorists could create massive nuclear destruction by detonating a nuclear device, or dirty bomb, in a major city.
“Facilitating possible nuclear terrorism through uranium mining and export is too big a price for Australia to pay on behalf of the commercial interests of international corporations like BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and General Atomics.”