Canada's plan to enrich uranium

A few weeks ago, apparently at the urging of the current Conservative administration in Canada, the U.S. dropped its longstanding objection to exporting uranium enrichment technology to non-nuclear states.

Few Canadians realize what is afoot, and the Harper government seems to like it that way.

Nobody’s accusing Canada of having atomic arsenal aspirations, but Iran’s enrichment program is being challenged for just this reason. Some observers have suggested Canada’s lobbying undermines the international non-proliferation effort.

Does Stephen Harper’s Conservative government have a hidden nuclear agenda?

Not if you happen to live outside Canada. The Canadian government has been campaigning internationally for months to add this country to the small, tightly circumscribed club of nuclear enrichment states.

But the diplomatic arm-twisting only came to light less than three weeks ago, when the United States announced it was dropping its insistence on a ban on uranium enrichment technology to non-nuclear states.

Anonymous negotiators at the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group meeting in Vienna emerged to say the American demand had been shelved primarily at the insistence of Canada, which wants to build uranium enrichment plants.

Who knew?

As it turns out, a great many people – but few in Canada and certainly not the news media whose job is to inform the public about federal policy.

Posted by Beagle17
"RSS here": http://feeds.feedburner.com/GnnBeagle17 Grew up in Nova Scotia. Hold BSc. in Biology and Grad. Diploma Journalism. Moved to Korea in 1997, and Taiwan in 1999. Currently teaching, writing, and doing Web design. Concerned about depleted...

RELATED ITEMS

• Russia Gives Iran Ultimatum On Enrichment
  Posted by johnnycivil on Wednesday, March 21st 2007
• Re-enrichment and the price of DU
  Posted by Beagle17 on Monday, July 23rd 2007
• Iran expanding uranium enrichment program
  Posted by Unite on Thursday, May 24th 2007
• Canada And Depleted Uranium
  Posted by Jerrgo on Tuesday, July 3rd 2007
• An awesome way to quit your job!
  Posted by Beagle17 on Wednesday, February 13th 2008