The UIF (Howard’s Uranium Industry Framework), plan, which Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane was expected to receive next month, complements a private enterprise bid by the Nuclear Fuel Leasing Group, a four-member group pushing to develop an enriched uranium export business based on Olympic Dam’s reserves in South Australia, reported The Australian Financial Review, (16/6/2006), p. 32 .
Business case by early next year: It outlined a timetable to detail a:
• business case by early next year;
• a stewardship plan with agreed responsibilities by December 2007; and
• endorsement by government and industry by May 2008.
Australia a one-stop nuclear shop: The NFLG plan was outlined to Prime Minister John Howard in Washington last month as he was briefed on US President George Bush’s plan for a Global Nuclear Energy Partnership. Mr Bush’s partnership concept would allow Australia and Canada to become one-stop nuclear shops leasing enriched uranium to encourage greenhouse-friendly power generation.
The nuclear lobby: With Mr Bush pressing on the global stage, the Federally appointed UIF group was to urge the Howard government to develop the necessary domestic policies to ensure that all "materials, goods and services that make up the uranium value chain are produced, managed and disposed of in a socially and environmentally friendly way".
Who’s who: John White, executive director of Global Renewables and one of the four members of NFLG, which developed the business plan behind the Bush scheme, was also chairman of Mr Macfarlane’s UIF group.
Opportunities and impediments: The UIF, appointed in August 2005, will report on opportunities and impediments for development of Australia’s uranium reserves, which are about 39 per cent of the world’s total. Comprising representatives of state and territory governments, miners such as BHP and ERA,(Rio Tinto) as well the Northern Lands Council, the UIF was separate from Howard’s nuclear taskforce under Ziggy Switkowski that will study the economics of nuclear power.
Federal committee plans business case: UIF outlines a program to develop a business case. Urging governments, current uranium mine operators and other stakeholders to support and develop a stewardship plan, the UIF outlines a program to develop a business case, undertake analysis of all steps from mining to disposal, document hazards and risk management controls and develop new stewardship actions to take uranium through the entire nuclear fuel cycle.
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The Australian Financial Review, 16/6/2006, p. 32
Source: Erisk Net