From the AFR:
Australia is poised to take a significant step towards exporting uranium to India in a landmark move that promises to open up millions of dollars of sales for companies such as Paladin, Toro and Energy Resources of Australia and double national production by 2020.
When she visits India in a fortnight, Prime Minister Julia Gillard will hold top level discussions that are expected to open the way to a uranium safeguards agreement that would contain strict requirements on the safe use of the fuel.
The strategy is intended to neutralise opponents who highlight that India has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Not a fan. I don’t think it is a good idea to undermine the NNPT further. Treaties only work because of the moral pressure exerted by the normative that they represent. There is no real legal constraint between nations.
Thus, the more exceptions that are made, the weaker the normative. This intrinsically undermines nuclear non-proliferation. Australian uranium will end up in Indian nuclear devices either directly or by default. That’s not in the national interest given that by far the most likely source of a nuclear conflict is on the Indian sub-continent. Neither is the spread of nuclear devices into other aspiring powers, most of whom are in our region. What are we going to tell Indonesia when they want a weapon? Sure, have some uranium!
A backwards step.
