Is it time for Australia to aquire it's own nuclear weapons

[FuzziWuzzi]

I certainly hope not, you see the above is a rhetorical question ;
because what many people don't know, even in Australia , are the extreme lengths successive PM's of the day went to, in the aquisition of a nuclear arsenal.
And being Australian myself , I certainly hope the latest N Korea "threat" or future threats wont reinvigorate the pursuit of seeking "off the shelf" nuclear devices.

For those that aren't familiar with australia's past nuclear ambitions , I admit it sounds pretty silly and even conspiratorial bordering on "wackiness" :roll: .
But like all strange but true stories, you start thinking "well nothing surprises me anymore". :cantbeli:
Most of the revelations came to light last year in Australia from a British documentary called "Fortress Australia"

Australian scientist speaks out against Lucas Heights reactor
http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,6744863%255E2,00.html (scary) :(


New Toxic Waste Dump :bash:
(i)
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/05/09/1052280423409.html
(ii)
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/12/22/1040510965112.html

Australian Newspaper reports on the British Documentary woot
(i) http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/08/16/1029114012911.html
(ii)http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/08/21/1029114133063.html

woomera rocket range
http://www.filmaust.com.au/showcase/8473/images/fortressaustraliagrab07.jpg

woomera rocket range
http://www.filmaust.com.au/showcase/8473/images/3fortressaustralia.jpg

simulated nuclear explosion in a Queensland rainforest using 50 tons of TNT rofl ('eh why not!)
http://www.filmaust.com.au/showcase/8473/images/fortressaustraliagrab03.jpg


Documentary video clip links woot
first features Richard Butler (an Australian and former head of U.N weapons inspections in Iraq 2.3 mb)
(i)http://www.filmaust.com.au/showcase/8473/video/fortress_intro_lrg.wmv
actual documentary clip 6.7 mb
(ii)http://www.filmaust.com.au/showcase/8473/video/fortress_trailer_lrg.wmv


Secret British/Australian plans to test nuclear fallout effects on Aussie troops during simulated fighting in a jungle environment
http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/s300334.htm :cantbeli:

Some info on the research Reactors in Australia , incidently a few years back I was given a tour of the Lucas Heights as part of a Physics excursion, the people seemed like top blokes , they gave us the "our friend the atom" lecture and the different uses for the research mainly being for medical isotopes, and on how they prepare their plutonium for burial ,and how the greenies have it all wrong. :lol:
http://control.com.au/238features.htm

Probably the best summary of Australia's pursuit of nuclear weapons by an MIT political science PhD student
http://cns.miis.edu/pubs/npr/vol05/51/walsh51.pdf

another guy putting together a PhD on australia's history of nuclear science
http://www.discontents.com.au/words/nuclear_history.php

http://www.discontents.com.au/ideas/atomic.php

The whole adventure reminds me of Doctor Strangelove
http://wso.williams.edu/~mhacker/Strangelove/cockpit.jpg

http://www.tigersweat.com/images/slove12.jpg

http://wso.williams.edu/~mhacker/Strangelove/plan-r.gif

http://wso.williams.edu/~mhacker/Strangelove/kongdrop.jpg

Well boys, we've got three engines out, we've got more holes in us than a horse trader's mule, the radio is gone and we're leaking fuel and if we was flying any lower why we'd need sleigh bells on this thing...but we've got one thing on those Ruskies. At this height why thy might harpoon us but they dang sure ain't gonna spot us on no radar screen!

[budanski]

Hey why not? Once this will happen (http://www.news.com.au/common/printpage/0,6093,6760977,00.html), it'll have one of the largest stockpiles in the world. :D

[FuzziWuzzi]

Well as much as I like the U.S I dont take that guy seriously for a second.
I think Australia has a pretty good thing going on now already.
Actually our worse fear is that we become just like America. i.e whenever a a random act of violence occurs around the country people always say, "god, I hope we dont end up like America!" -it's actually our greatest fear !
rofl

What's more weird is that take a group of puritans who want to create a "new world" and you get a country with one of the worst crime rates per capita in the world; but take a group of british criminals ,Irish & scottish dissidents, and other "unsavoury" characters; chuck them down under and we end up with a society that has one of the lowest crime rates per capita anywhere in the world.
Talk about paradoxes .... (hey not that it won't happen in the next 20 years though, it's a crazy world we live in :roll: )

Seriously though the thought ofAustralia going nuclear boggles in the mind as it might spark huge arms race between japan , south korea (the north if its still around) , perhaps indonesia and malaysia, and of course China.

According to the former nuclear advisor to the government we're only two years away at any given time from production, while japan is only 6 months away (they stockpile their reactor plutonium, which is pretty crude though).

We also have 1/3 of the worlds uranium right here, and that's not 1/3 supply , that's 1/3 world reserves, for instance the US only has 4% of the world's reserves. So can make them on the cheap, and create lots of jobs.
:D
All the same it would be a terrible path for Australia to take , especially after all the work we've made in nonproliferation, but a real north korean theat could provide that opportunity.