still hot news around CLP wants uranium enrichment for NT
The Country Liberal Party (CLP) wants to take its support for uranium mining one step further and investigate enrichment in the Northern Territory.
The CLP says there is money to be made in enrichment, but it is going into someone else's coffers.
The party will ask members to vote this weekend to investigate whether it would be viable to start enriching uranium in the Top End.
The motion would set up a special committee to find out who the customers would be and work out whether the idea would be viable.
It would consider waste and security issues as well as the jobs enrichment would create.
The CLP says it is only thinking about enriching uranium for use in power stations, not to the level where it could be used in nuclear weapons.
Member for Solomon, Dave Tollner, has thrown his support behind the proposal, and says enrichment could be a massive industry.
Mr Tollner says Australia has 40 per cent of the world's uranium resource, and currently 100 per cent of those exports go through Darwin's port.
"I think that the party should look into all aspects of it, not just the commercial aspects," he said.
"But also the environmental aspects, what sort of jobs would be created [and] whether or not this will assist in reducing nuclear weapon proliferation."
The party believes enriching uranium locally would also give the Territory more control over who ultimately gets the uranium pulled from Territory soil.
A report on the investigation is due early next year.
GPN
greater pacific gold limited
