From: Hermit (hidden@lucifer.com)
Date: Sun Jul 13 2003 - 14:29:54 MDT
Nuclear weapons 'option' for Australia
Source: Sunday Herald Sun (http://news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,6744863%255E2,00.html)
Authors: Gerard McManus, Additional reporting by Laurie Nowell and Chris Tinkler.
Dated: 2003-07-13
AUSTRALIA is giving itself the option of becoming a nuclear power through a deal with the US to obtain nuclear weapons and extensive
investment in atomic expertise, it has been claimed.
A leading strategic policy expert says Australia is forging an understanding with the US that would ensure quick access to "off the
shelf" tactical nuclear weapons during a crisis.
And a former senior Howard Government science adviser says the new $600 million reactor at Lucas Heights will ensure Australia has
the skills and technology to launch a nuclear weapons program.
"There is no doubt in my mind that a main purpose of Lucas Heights is to maintain Australia's capacity to develop nuclear weapons,"
the former adviser said this week.
"It is Australia's insurance policy against the future, just in case the US does not come to our aid. We are way more advanced in
nuclear technology than Saddam Hussein ever was."
The claims come as it has been reported North Korea has begun reprocessing spent nuclear fuel rods - a program that could yield
enough plutonium for six nuclear warheads within months.
And the rogue state has been accused by South Korea of conducting 70 high-explosive tests linked to nuclear weapons production.
This month the Federal Government compulsorily acquired 6sq km of a sheep station at Arcoona, 20km north east of Woomera, for a
proposed nuclear waste dump.
Strategic policy expert Associate Professor Wayne Reynolds, of Newcastle University, says the new reactor is one arm of a dual nucle
ar-based defence strategy.
The other involves reaching an agreement with the US that Australia could buy small tactical nuclear weapons in the event of a
regional nuclear crisis.
"During the Cold War, the US seemed to see the world in terms of containment, and Australia's role was really as a back-up base,"
Professor Reynolds said. "But since the Cold War ended, our role has been enhanced. The US will clearly have to beef up their own
arrangements in South-East Asia now.
"Australia has always been very keen to keep in touch with US military planning and get as much access to modern weapons as
possible.
"The military alliance has built up to such an extent that, when it came to the Iraq War, there was simply no political option other
than to work with the US.
"If the US made tactical nuclear weapons available to us, I don't think we would be hindered by the Non-Proliferation Treaty."
Professor Reynolds described Australia as being a "near-nuclear weapons state" and potentially only two years away from producing
nuclear weapons.
"What all the near-nuclear weapons states have in common is the capacity to make them, while not actually doing it," Professor
Reynolds said. "We have the scientists and engineers."
The former science adviser spoke out despite fears he might be prosecuted and that his business might suffer.
He said senior government officials had told him of plans to preserve nuclear expertise through the building of the new reactor for
the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation.
"The new reactor they are building is very large for the purposes they claim it will be used for," he said. "To fulfil its medical
functions, the reactor would only need to be a fifth to a tenth of the size of the one they are building.
"Just about all the critical infrastructure and expertise is also there. They now have a reservoir of people, from materials
handling to explosives experts to reactor physicists and electronics engineers.
"The Government will deny this on Sunday morning, but there's no doubt in my mind," he said.
While ANSTO says it has no active program to build a bomb, Australian scientists at Lucas Heights conduct research into other
countries' bomb designs.
"The expertise is being maintained, they would not be building something like this if they did not have a long-term view of being
able to design their own bomb," the adviser said.
A spokeswoman for the Federal Government said the claims were "absurd".
"Australia is a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and has made a legal commitment to not acquire nuclear weapons, and
this is enshrined in legislation," spokeswoman Willie Herron said. [Hermit comments that she may be technically correct. The USA has
repeatedly argued that so long as weapons are not "assembled", that nuclear munition components are not covered by her treaty
obligations. It seems that others are now going to offer this disingenuous bypass.]
Preliminary work has started on the new reactor, estimated in 1999 to cost $268 million, but set to cost as much as $600 million
before it is completed.
ANSTO says the new reactor, the Replacement Research Reactor, is a 20 megawatt pool reactor using low-enriched uranium fuel cooled
by water. It will be a multi-purpose facility for radioisotope production, irradiation services and neutron beam research.
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