SES OPPOSES PLANNED SALES OF URANIUM TO INDIA

Media Release

Saskatoon, June 29, 2010 -- Prime Minister Harper has made a serious error by entering into a formal agreement by which Canada will reopen uranium exports to India.

"The agreement will pave the way for uranium mining companies in Saskatchewan to export uranium to India, but it will do so at a very high cost -- the further unraveling of the United Nations Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty," Saskatchewan Environmental Society Board Member Ann Coxworth said today.

"India refuses to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty, yet Canada and Saskatchewan will now sell uranium to them anyway. It's a disturbing situation that highlights the inadequacy of international controls over trade in nuclear materials," Coxworth said.

The Non-Proliferation Treaty has been the foundation for civilian trade in uranium over the past forty years. Canada has long claimed that it is only selling uranium to countries that fulfilled the obligations of the treaty, thus reducing the risk that Canadian uranium would be used for atomic weapons purposes.

"Now Canada is not only prepared to sell to a non-signatory, but to a country that has already used Canadian uranium to explode an atomic weapon," Coxworth observed.

"There is a good reason for India's unwillingness to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty. They do not want to subject themselves to full United Nations inspection and they want to continue to expand their nuclear weapons arsenal. By opening the door to uranium sales in India, Canada and Saskatchewan risk becoming part of the fueling of an atomic weapons race between India and Pakistan."