Australia to sell uranium to China

Australia holds 30% of the worlds uranium deposits and exports $400 million worth of it a year. Recently the Australian government has been in negotiations with China over exporting uranium to the communist government for nuclear power generation. With the major buid up in China's military and it's advances in missile technology one has to wonder how much of that uranium would be used for "peaceful" puposes. I recognize that China is demanding more and more of the worlds fossile fuels every year and nuclear energy could help slow it some but the communist regime there is also on a major military expansion which should cause alarm to any government as close to them as Australia.

Mr Downer also revealed that officials had made good progress in negotiations with China on exporting uranium.
"We have entered into those discussions and the negotiations are moving ahead reasonably positively," he said.
"It is in Australia's national interest, since we export uranium, that there be a global expansion of nuclear energy."

Here is a link to an article about the negotiations where the above quote comes from. It doesn't really discuss the military implications but it should.
www.thecouriermail.news.com.au...

If no one has stepped in already I can't see this being anything but them actually wanting nuclear power.

China is a recognized nuclear power, so I don't see any problem with Australia selling uranium to them.

Hopefully it will help them use less fossil fuels.

Originally posted by phixion
If no one has stepped in already I can't see this being anything but them actually wanting nuclear power.

Oh I'm positive they need the alternative power supplies in china. There is no doubt about that. My problem is what else they can do with the nuclear power plants. I would hope that Australia would want to keep the deals with china transperant as well. And that the Howard government would want to ensure that Austrailian uranium isn't going to build Chinese/North Korean nuclear weapons.