How can we be sure that China will not divert Australian uranium to weapons?
Assurances that AONM will not be used for military purposes derive from a number of factors, which include: (1) China’s willingness to give a treaty-level commitment to use AONM solely for peaceful purposes; (2) the safeguards agreements China has with both the IAEA and Australia; (3) detailed nuclear accounting information to be reported to ASNO; (4) uranium would be bought for power utilities for electricity generation and not sold for unspecified purposes; and (5) the five countries recognised as NWS under the NPT – China, France, Russia, UK and USA – have sufficient fissile material for their military programs – Open sources suggest that China ceased production of fissile material for nuclear weapon some years ago. Australia has urged China to join the other nuclear weapon states in announcing a moratorium on production of fissile material for nuclear weapons.
