Australia listed as nuclear holding site

Press, 22 September 1987, Page 32

Australia listed as nuclear holding site

NZPA-AAP London Australia and 13 other countries have been listed in documents circulated to computer salesmen as holding sites where nuclear weapons are or could be manufactured by the United States.

In a report in the "Guardian” newspaper, the list is described as a comprehensive guide to every potential nuclear weapons manufacturing plant in the West and is reported to contain information the countries involved have allegedly tried to keep from the Soviet Union, terrorists and nuclear protesters.

The list has been issued by the United States Department of Commerce as a guide for computer salesmen to prevent them allowing United States

technology to be used in the manufacture of nuclear weapons even by friendly powers. The countries listed include Australia (five installations), Belgium (12), Canada (13), Denmark (one), West Germany (37), France (29), Greece (two), Italy (27), Japan (31), Netherlands (nine), Norway (three), Portugal (two), Turkey (four) and Britain (25). The C.1.A., Defence Intelligence and the National Security Organisation has listed the sensitive installations that cannot have United States technology without a special license. It says this is because of extra-territorial tensions, particularly in Britain.

In effect it means that computers can only be

sold to those on the list and bans United States technology in other nations’ weapons programmes. A British Liberal member of Parliament says this is another example of the United States treating its closest allies with contempt in order to keep itself ahead in technology. Yeovil representative, Paddy Ashdown, said the United States had exposed all the most sensitive nuclear installations to be terrorist targets and had informed the K.G.B. of installation locations.

Germany and Japan will be particularly embarrassed by the move since both countries are banned from holding nuclear weapons under international agreements. Australia has dismissed

the list as nonsense. Mr Jack Walker, a spokesman for the Australian Nuclear Science and Technical Organisation based at the Lucas Heights atomic site, south of Sydney, said Australia had no capacity for making nuclear weapons. “We are prohibited from doing so by law and have no capacity to do so anyway,” said Mr Walker. He said he was totally unaware of any other nuclear locations apart from Lucas Heights and said the list, which exposed dozens of nuclear sites around the world was “quite inaccurate.”

“Even if they (the Government) were to say, ‘Do it,’ it would take probably 10 to 15 years to set up a system to produce nuclear weapons.”