MEDIA RELEASE

M.R. 88/116 CANBERRA 20/4/88

THE SENATE

SANDERS: GOVERNMENT ADMITS URANIUM COULD END IN BOMBS - THEN DOES NOTHING

Australian Democrat's Senator Norm Sanders said today that he was  staggered that the Australian Government had admitted that  Australian uranium could end up in nuclear weapons but proposed  to do nothing about it.

Senator Sanders said that the whole bureaucratic safeguards  structure was an empty shell that was designed to give the  appearance of safeguarding uranium. In fact it deliberately  avoids the basic issue of where the uranium actually goes.

The Government's statement on uranium safeguards contained three  major admissions and a number of minor ones which proved that our  safeguards are worthless," Senator Sanders said.

"Firstly Australian uranium goes into a vast pool when it enters  the nuclear fuel cycle and becomes impossible to trace.  Neither  Euratom nor the International Atomic Energy Authority tracked  Australian uranium,  enriched uranium or plutonium

"As a result our safeguards are nothing more than a glorified  bureaucratic paper chase which can only guarantee that no  Australian paper ends up in nuclear weapons. We safeguard our  paperwork,  not our actual uranium.

"Secondly it is perfectly legal for European firms to circumvent  Australian safeguards by arranging flag-swaps,  as happened in the  Nukem/RWE case.

"Thirdly it is perfectly legal for European firms to facilitate  the entry of Namibian and South African uranium. This uranium is  embargoed by Australia, Canada and the USA. However,  it can enter  the US or Canada by internal flag-swapping with Australian  uranium.

In addition, Senator Sanders said, there were several matters the  Government's report did not deal with:

* According to the Euratom documents, Euratom was considering a  new category of swaps - 'origin swaps' - to get around  international (as oppposed to internal) flag swap  restrictions on South African and Namibian uranium.

These swaps would not involve the Euratom safeguards directorate  and would effectively 'privatise'  flag-swaps in the EEC.

* The fact that a re-instated ban on sales to France would be  totally ineffective. The only safeguard against our uranium  returning in French bombs was a complete ban on uranium sales.

"Since there is no method to verify the path of the uranium once  it leaves Australia, the Government's position is simply to state  that 'Our uranium doesn't end up in French bombs because the

French say it doesn't'. After the Rainbow Warrior incident, who  could possibly trust the French?" Senator Sanders said.

* That Australian uranium simply became part of large pool of  uranium and through ’flagswap’  procedures enlarged the amount of  uranium potentially available for enrichment.

* The Government would have approved of the Australian uranium  involved in the recent Nukem scandal being enriched to 93 per  cent had permission been applied for.

*The Government's position is that there is nothing wrong with  its continuing shipment of Australian uranium to the French  Tricastin enrichment plant which sends enriched uranium to the  Pierrelatte plant for weapons production.

* 'Safeguards' were applied through bi-lateral agreements with  each country (Euratom in the case of the EEC) which relied on  each country (including France) to comply with the Australian  safeguards.

* The Government was maintaining the absurd position that  Australian uranium did not assist in maintaining nuclear weapons  because if a uranium shortage developed through the withdrawal of  Australian and other uranium, the nuclear power industry would be

closed before the weapons industry.

Senator Sanders said that because of the Government's total  abdication of responsibility on the safeguards issue he would be  introducing a new safeguards bill next week.

Further information: Norm Sanders or Chris Harris 062 727690/691  or Richard Bolt 03 614 3792

