Human rights and safety - more  important than uranium profits  Australian Greens spokesperson on nuclear policy Senator Scott  Ludlam. 11 October 2012.

The Australian Greens today urged the Prime Minister to put human rights and  safety before uranium profits during her impending visit to India.

“While Prime Minister Gillard is expected to begin negotiating a framework for  uranium exports to India, the democratic rights of tens of thousands of Indian  anti-nuclear protestors are being steamrolled by police repression,” said Greens  nuclear policy spokesperson Senator Scott Ludlam.

"The sale of uranium to India while that country refuses to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty is illegal under Treaty of Rarotonga, signed by our  Government in 1985.  The Prime Minister should listen to the Indian  communities asking us not to sell uranium to the Indian nuclear industry,  instead of the corporate shills profiting from a deadly trade.

“Globally the nuclear industry is in decline.  BHP have postponed the expansion  of Olympic Dam due to the market’s plummeting bottom line.  Just this week the  uranium spot price hit a new two-year low of $US45.75 a pound.  Pushing  uranium onto India’s market temporarily benefits a dying industry in Australia  at the expense of Indians who deserve clean, affordable energy.  Nuclear is  neither.

“In Koodankulum nuclear reactors are being forced on local residents literally at  gunpoint.  Police have used brutal tactics against tens of thousands of peaceful  protestors. Two people have been shot dead by police, most recently Mr  Anthony Samy in September.  There have been at least five deaths in the  struggles against Koodankulam (Tamil Nadu), Jaitapur (Maharashtra) and  Gorakhpur (Haryana) nuclear power plants since 2010.

“In 2011 one of India's pioneer nuclear scientists and formerly a member of  India's Atomic Energy Commission, Dr MP Parameswaran, said India should  suspend its entire nuclear program because of safety risks and the unresolved  problem of nuclear waste.

“Earlier this year India was ranked 28th out of 32 countries in terms of the  security of their nuclear stockpiles.  Making matters worse, India’s new Nuclear  Safety Regulatory Authority (NSRA) has fewer powers and less independence  than the previous Atomic Energy Regulatory Board.”



Media contact:  Giovanni Torre - 0417 174 302

