By Rich Bowden:

The Australian Government’s decision to end restrictions on uranium to Russia will damage its credibility as a country dedicated to ending nuclear proliferation, the Australian Greens have said.

Greens nuclear spokesperson Scott Ludlam, said in a statement released Friday that Russia had not been inspected by IAEA inspectors since 2001 and its continues nuclear trade with renegade state Iran posed a risk to proliferation.

“The spread of weapons grade material is the dark underbelly of the uranium mining industry,” he said. “The very real security and nonproliferation concerns of uranium deals with Russia were spelled out forensically by the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties (JSCOT) in 2008.”

Accusing the Federal Government of ignoring proliferation risks associated with trading uranium to Russia, he said vested interests had yet again been allowed to dictate policy.

“Once again the mining industry has been allowed to cut across Australia’s broader foreign policy objectives and security interests,

“This is the worst possible decision at a time when nations are working to rid the world of nuclear weapons,” Senator Ludlam said.

Earlier Foreign Minister Stephen Smith released a statement following his meeting with counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Moscow that Australia and Russia had agreed to “…ratify the Australia-Russia Nuclear Cooperation Agreement and to use the Agreement to strengthen bilateral cooperation on nuclear policy and safeguards.”

According to news agency reports: “This will enable Australian uranium to be exported to the Russian Federation for civil, peaceful nuclear purposes.”

Australia contains the world’s largest reserves of uranium according to industry association sources.

Tags: australia uranium, no proliferation, nuclear proliferation, russia uranium, uranium export