Australian Labor Party Yields on Uranium Mine Policy

From the Sydney Morning Herald:

Labor appears certain to dump its policy of banning new uranium mines, with the party's Senate leader and a resource-rich state joining the chorus for change.

Opposition resources spokesman Chris Evans - Labor's leader in the Senate - came out in support of an overhaul on Friday, saying the policy had failed to limit the production of uranium.

[...]

Senator Evans, whose state of Western Australia holds huge deposits of uranium, said the policy that confines production to three mines was untenable.

"I do not dismiss the legitimate concerns over nuclear weapon proliferation, the disposal of waste and environmental concerns - these need to be tackled head on," he said.

"But imposing an arbitrary limit on the number of uranium mines does little to address those concerns."

For some time now, our friend Robert Merkel has told us that the ultimate aim of John Howard's government in discussing building new nuclear plants in Australia was to expand uranium mining. If that's so, it looks like it worked.