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FacebookXLinkedinCopy URL Photo from the Prime Minister of Canada Facebook page. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney walks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during Carney’s visit to New Delhi on March 2. Aidan Jaager Saskatoon StarPhoenix The Saskatchewan Environmental Society is concerned that a recent agreement to sell Saskatchewan-mined uranium to India could have unethical implications. The uranium — valued at $2.6 billion over a nine-year deal — will expand India’s civilian nuclear power fleet. SES board member Peter Prebble said in a news release that “India refuses to sign and ratify the treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, which was intended to be a prerequisite for all uranium and nuclear reactor trade between countries. “Selling uranium to a country that rejects the treaty — and that in fact openly defies it — is highly irresponsible. India has also refused to sign and ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, designed to prevent nuclear weapons testing,” he added. The SES said 190 countries have signed the treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, and 178 have ratified the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. “While Saskatchewan uranium fuels India’s civilian nuclear reactors, this agreement and the newly announced trade deal effectively frees India to use its limited domestic uranium stockpiles for atomic weapons production,” Prebble said. India’s “so-called civilian plutonium that has been separated from spent nuclear reactor fuel,” could be converted into atomic weapons material within one to two years, the SES said, adding India can also withdraw from its nuclear co-operation agreement with Canada with one year’s notice. University of Saskatchewan economics and international trade professor Joel Bruneau said Canada questioned if they should be engaged in producing nuclear energy with India back in 1974. That’s when India used Canadian nuclear reactor technology to develop and test its first atomic bomb that temporarily stopped uranium sales. A nuclear co-operation agreement was signed in 2012 to resume sales. “There are some international agreements that have trade restrictions inside of them and this agreement does not, so there’s no obligation for a country like Canada to ban exports to a place like India. In this case, Canada has decided to ensure that it’s not used to produce nuclear weapons, and we have some protocols to monitor that,” Bruneau said. He noted the International Atomic Energy Agency protocol that applies safeguards under a 2009 agreement, tracking nuclear material inventories. Bruneau said often, an importing country will declare that the uranium will not be used to make nuclear weapons. “In a lot of cases, that’s basically useless because it then frees up other resources to be used to produce nuclear weapons,” Bruneau said. He added that uranium can also be used for physical material such as helicopters that would not be used for military purposes. “In this case India promised not to use it for nuclear weapons and Canada believes them. If there is no complaints, everything works out — unless India is actually using the material wrongfully and then there would need to be something done about it.” Under terms of the agreement, Saskatoon-based Cameco will supply 11,000 tonnes of the reactor fuel to India from 2027 through 2035. Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said at a press conference in India that the deal “marks a great day for this long-standing partnership,” and boosts the province’s economy. Bruneau agrees. “Having the federal government essentially have more contracts with India will be economically beneficial for Saskatchewan and Cameco.” Bruneau said he would be surprised if other countries perceive the new deal as something out of the ordinary. “We do export uranium to Japan, Europe and to France. We have an export presence, so it’s not like we’re beginning to export. We always have had an export. “Some may think it is a sign that Canada somehow is signing and changing its view about nuclear weapons. And I don’t think it is. I think everybody’s going to see this as we are just trading more with India and it’s adding to our trade portfolio.”
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