China, Australia sign uranium deal
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-04-03 09:54
Australia and China signed a nuclear safeguards deal on Monday, witnessed by
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Australian Prime Minister John Howard, to allow
Beijing to import Australian uranium for power generation.
|
Australian Prime Minister John Howard (L) shakes hands with Chinese
Premier Wen Jiabao in Canberra April 3, 2006. Australia and China signed a
nuclear safeguards deal to allow Beijing to import Australian uranium for
power generation Monday morning. Wen is the first Chinese Premier to visit
Australia in 18 years. [Reuters]
|
Australia, which has about 40 percent of the world's known uranium reserves,
only allows uranium sales to members of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty who
also agree to a separate bilateral safeguards deal.
Australia currently has only three operating uranium mines, owned
by BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and General Atomics of the United States, and
Canberra has said significant uranium exports to China were unlikely to start
until 2010.
Australia agreed in principle during a visit by Howard to China in April last
year to work on a nuclear safeguards agreement that would permit sales of
uranium to China for peaceful purposes.
Plans to negotiate the nuclear cooperation agreement with China were
confirmed by Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer last August．
A nuclear deal would augment a broader Australia-China free trade agreement
that is now under negotiation.
|