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Australia mulls granting China access to uranium

Australia said yesterday that it could give resource-hungry China direct access to its huge uranium deposits if Beijing signs pledges that the nuclear material would not be used for military purposes.

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said China asked for permission to conduct uranium exploration and mining in Australia during talks early this year in the Chinese capital.

But he said the Chinese plans would have to get past Australia's Foreign Investment Review Board and there would need to be a nuclear safeguards agreement.

"We wouldn't be exporting any uranium to China for military purposes of any kind," Downer said on national radio.

"By that I don't only mean for use in nuclear weapons, but also we wouldn't be exporting any uranium to China for use in military vessels or vehicles of one kind or another," he said.

China has a ravenous appetite for energy to power its rapidly growing economy and is already a major purchaser of Australian coal and natural gas.

Chinese officials first asked for access to Australian uranium deposits during meetings in February with the Australian Nuclear Safeguards and Non-Proliferation Office, officials said.

The Chinese initiative was revealed yesterday by the Age newspaper in Melbourne and then confirmed by Downer, who earlier this year raised the prospect of increasing Australian exports of uranium to help fuel expanding nuclear power industries across Asia, notably in South Korea and India.

Australia has about 40 percent of the world's known uranium reserves but has only three operating uranium mines, two in South Australia and one in the Northern Territory.

The center-left Labor Party, which controls the state and territory governments, has opposed opening more uranium mines.

Federal Labor leader Kim Beazely reaffirmed yesterday his party's opposition to opening additional uranium mines, though he said he had "no problems" with exporting uranium to China if security and waste disposal issues could be resolved.

"I would say at this stage we're as far into the business as we want to be," he said. "They [the Chinese] have got plenty of opportunity to acquire uranium from current facilities."
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