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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3>Coal-to-liquids is a possible agenda, but I suspect there is something
more dangerous here. Think of the timing of John Howard's launch of the
"nuclear debate" - he was in Washington at the time, and we know he likes
currying favour with the Bush administration and US business
interests.</FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3></FONT> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3>Sounds to me as if the Americans have decided to go nuclear, but are
worried about the rest of the world getting uranium they could process up to
weapons grade material. The solution would be for Australia to LEASE its fuel
rods rather than selling them. The rods could even be contaminated here in
Australia with lead to render further refinement of the uranium difficult if not
impossible. The plan is, in that case, for Australia to lease its rods to
India, China, anywhere you like, and also take them back at the end of their
life and store the waste here.</FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><?xml:namespace prefix = o ns =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3>Every country using Australian rods could sleep happy as the intractable
waste problem will not be one for their backyard or their voters.</FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><o:p><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3>So, whence Australia's need for nuclear power? Australia doesn't need
nuclear power. But, just as we joined the coalition of the willing in Iraq, when
there was no Australian national interest at stake, we are now coming forward to
join a similar coalition which is of no net benefit to Australia. The Howard
plan is to drum up popular support for nuclear power in Australia, as a
responsible response to climate change, and to construct our own reprocessing
and storage facilities here in Australia - a measure which could be sold as
being responsible, and 'value adding'. Once we have our own reprocessing and
storage facilities, it is only a small step to move to the leasing arrangement
through which we become a dump for the world's spent nuclear fuel rods and other
high-level waste.</FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><o:p><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3>The most despicable aspect of this is that the Commonwealth government is
negotiating with a number of Northern Territory (and possibly other) Aboriginal
traditional owners to use their land as the site for this dump. "Beads and
blankets" for something which traditional culture and society cannot possibly
prepare Aboriginals to understand in the same terms as those who are pushing
this onto them.</FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><o:p><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3> </FONT></o:p></P><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">Incidentally,
there is a strong editorial in the current issue of The Ecologist, in praise of
NIMBY-ism. Worth a read, and relevant to the nuclear debate.<BR
style="mso-special-character: line-break"><BR
style="mso-special-character: line-break"></SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial
size=2>-----------------------------------------------------------------<BR>Keith
Thomas<BR>Nature and Society Forum<BR>(02) 6288 0760 (Weekday mornings
only); 0412 487 625
(Mobile)<BR>-----------------------------------------------------------------</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>