Dear ICAN supporters
Welcome to your monthly e-bulletin from ICAN Australia, updating you on the progress we're making in our world-wide campaign to abolish nuclear weapons, and how you can help.

This month: Australia's Parliamentary Inquiry into nuclear treaties holds its first public hearing and ICAN, with other anti-nuclear organisations, prepares for the next UN meeting on nuclear non-proliferation.

ICAN act: Two things to do today

ICAN GIVE!
Make a donation to ICAN Australia and it will be doubled! 
For a limited time, every dollar you donate to ICAN Australia will be matched, thanks to a generous challenge grant from the Poola Foundation. Please consider making a donation today to help us meet this challenge so we can continue to campaign on this vital issue. 
Donate at www.icanw.org/donate or contact us for tax deductibility.

Ask US President Obama to rid the world of nuclear weapons
Sign the appeal, coordinated by the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. Read more at www.wagingpeace.org/appeal.

ICAN news

ICAN makes submission to Australia's nuclear treaties inquiry. 
Associate Professor Tilman Ruff has made a detailed submission to the Australian Parliament's inquiry into Australia 's nuclear treaties, held by the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties (JSCOT). 56 submissions, with a wealth of information and views, are available for reading online, with many more - including ICAN's - still to be posted. www.aph.gov.au/house/committee/jsct/nuclearnon_proliferation/subs.htm

ICAN coordinates Canberra roundtable for anti-nuclear NGOs
The nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Preparatory Committee (PrepCom), 4-15 May in New York City, is a UN planning meeting for the crucial 2010 NPT Review Conference.

ICAN is coordinating a round-table consultation of Australian anti-nuclear organisations with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Canberra on 2 April, in preparation for the PrepCom. If your organisation wishes to attend, please email Dimity Hawkins dimity@icanw.org now.

ICAN in the news

Yes, we can ban the bomb!
With President Obama reviving nuclear disarmament talks with Russia, Australia's steps towards ridding the world of nuclear weapons look even more realistic, argues Tim Wright in an opinion piece on the ABC's Unleashed website. Tim is a member of ICAN's Australian Management Committee.  

Nukes news
Nuclear headlines from the last month

Disarmament Commission Chair Gareth Evans warns of nuclear danger
Co-Chair of the International Commission for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament, Gareth Evans, addressed the first public hearing of the Australia's Parliamentary Inquiry into nuclear treaties.

Australia's former Foreign Minister warned that terrorists could obtain or build a nuclear bomb and smuggle it into the heart of a major city, reported in The Age.

Evans described the nuclear threat as among the three biggest issues facing the globe, alongside climate change and the economic meltdown.

See Canberra Times story here. (The transcript of Gareth Evans' evidence will be posted at the inquiry website. Public hearing times will also be posted at: www.aph.gov.au/house/committee/jsct/nuclearnon_proliferation/hearings.htm ).

Rudd, Obama to talk on nuclear disarmament
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says he will discuss "how we can have even closer cooperation between our two countries on the great shared challenges of climate change, nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation, and the future shape of the Asia-Pacific region". - The Age.

UN head: cuts to military funding could solve food crisis
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon argues that just a fraction of the $1.3 trillion yearly global military expenditures could help guide us out of the food crisis, reach the Millennium Development Goals and tackle climate change. He also called for all nations to join the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and for the completion of its verification system. www.bdafrica.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=13121&Itemid=5821

Yucca Mountain nuclear waste finally abandoned
After 20 years and $US9 billion, President Obama has blocked a plan to develop Yucca Mountain, north-west of Las Vegas, as the US nuclear waste repository. Opponents highlighted the risks of earthquakes, and toxic and terrorist risks of transporting the waste across the US.

President Obama's decision to start work afresh to seek a new solution underlines once again that there is no safe method of storing nuclear waste. See The Age story.

Report documents decline of nuclear power
The nuclear power industry is in a state of global decline - a situation that isn't going to change in the foreseeable future, according to The Bulletin of The Atomic Scientists annual update of the World Nuclear Industry Status report.

Nuclear submarine crash alarms
A UK and a French submarine, both carrying nuclear missiles on routine patrols, were damaged in a collision deep in the Atlantic Ocean. News of the collision, highlighting the risks of these nuclear armed patrols, took ten days to emerge.
www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/feb/16/nuclear-submarines-collide

$50 billion nuclear spending excised from US stimulus bill
A proposal to squander $50 billion on new nuclear reactors was removed from the US $789 billion stimulus bill. This result is a major victory for the many anti-nuclear and environmental groups. US$1 billion for the nuclear weapons program was also taken out of the stimulus package. http://nuclear-news.net/2009/02/13/victory-50-billion-for-toxic-nuclear-pork-cut-from-stimulus-bill/

Friends Of The Earth Radioactive Exposure Tour invitation
Join Friends of the Earth to visit the Olympic Dam uranium mine at Roxby Downs, South Australia, the beautiful Lake Eyre and Mound Springs and meet with Aboriginal people campaigning against the nuclear industry. The trip will visit the beautiful Gammon Ranges and Arkaroola, the not-so-beautiful Beverley uranium mine, and much else besides. 15-25 May.
www.foe.org.au/anti-nuclear/media/news-items/2009/radioactive-exposure-tour-2009 

WE CAN!

The ICAN Australian Bulletin comes to you from the ICAN Australia team, sent the first week of each month, from:
International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
G03 60 Leicester Street, Carlton, Victoria, Australia 3053
Phone: + 61 3 9347 4795
Fax: + 61 39347 4995

Feedback or contributions to: info@icanw.org

3 March 2009