China Is in Talks to Buy Uranium From Australia

CANBERRA, Australia — Australia and China are negotiating an agreement to allow Australia to export uranium to China for peaceful purposes, the foreign minister said today.

Preliminary talks are underway to secure a Chinese commitment that the uranium would be used only for electricity generation, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said.

Australia prohibits the sale of uranium for nuclear weapons, nuclear-powered warships or other military uses.

Australia also insists that uranium customers abide by the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and prevent radioactive products from being passed to another country.

“The agreement will establish safeguard arrangements to ensure Australian uranium supplied to China is used exclusively for peaceful purposes,” Downer said in a statement.

He said China was the world’s second-largest energy consumer and planned to meet its growing demand with a fourfold increase in nuclear energy production by 2020.

China expects the share of its power supplied by nuclear generation to grow to 4% by 2020 from 2.3% today. To meet that goal, it must build about two new facilities a year. China will also need to import most of the uranium it needs as its nuclear program expands. Australia has uranium trade agreements with 36 countries, Downer said.

China is already a confirmed nuclear weapons power.