Uranium debate we have to have Page Tools Chinese ambitions to mine Australian uranium must be openly discussed. In recent months, federal Liberal politicians, including Prime Minister John Howard, Treasurer Peter Costello, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and Science Minister Brendan Nelson, have discussed nuclear power as a climate-friendly option for Australia to consider or have called for uranium mining to be increased for economic reasons. Labor is under pressure to overturn its "three mines" policy, which allows uranium to be extracted from the Ranger mine in the Northern Territory and the Olympic Dam and Beverley mines in South Australia. But domestic discomfort about the dangers of storing radioactive waste and the possibility of a nuclear accident have so far prevented Australians from using our own uranium at home (no permanent nuclear-waste disposal facility exists anywhere in the world). Advocates for change have attacked Australia's uranium policy for being inconsistent, economically restrictive and environmentally short-sighted given the need to limit greenhouse emissions. A federal parliamentary inquiry into Australia's uranium reserves was established this year. The chairman of the inquiry, Liberal Geoff Prosser, has said most of the contributors so far have wanted more uranium to be mined in Australia to capitalise on growing demand and rising prices. Today's report in The Age that China has asked the Federal Government if it may conduct its own uranium exploration and mining operations in this country again draws attention to our contradictory approach to uranium. The director general of the Australian Nuclear Safeguards office,