Uranium in Australia 1970-1987: An Annotated Bibliography

Abstract

In Sum, this is a bibliography of materials which deal with uranium mining in Australia during the period 1970-1987, which it is feasible to annotate, which are publicly available and which are not of a highly technical nature. We located 845 items which met these criteria. We are confident that it is comprehensive and certain that it is representative of all viewpoints on the various aspects of the uranium mining issue in Australia. Part One deals with the development and structure of the uranium industry in Australia as a whole and in individual states and with uranium exploration and uranium resources. Part Two consists of items which address the general issue of whether Australia should mine its uranium from a number of different perspectives. Part Three deals with uranium policies and is general in focus. Part Four deals with uranium and Aborigines. Part Five deals with economic issues. Part Six deals with the issue of domestic processing and utilization of Australian uranium. Part Seven covers environmental issues. Part Eight deals with nuclear proliferation and nuclear safeguards, while Part Nine contains sections on each major uranium project. This is a bibliography of uranium mining in Australia; we have consequently dealt with matters which have, or are claimed to have, a direct link with the mining of Australian uranium. The Bibliography is not restricted to material originating in Australia, and indeed we have made every effort to include relevant items produced overseas. In general, we have only included items which we believe could be understood by those without a technical training. We have two reasons for doing this. First, our expertise is in the area of social, economic and political analysis, and consequently we did not feel confident in our ability to accurately present analyses based on information of a highly technical kind. Second, some areas of technical literature are very extensive, and again would justify a major bibliography in their own right. This applies particularly to the geology of uranium in Australia. The bibliography covers material produced from 1970 onwards. We picked this starting date because it was in that year that the Ranger and Nabarlek uranium deposits were located, initiating the discovery and development of Australia’s first low-cost uranium resources. We used only items which could be sighted, and so confidential reports or documents have been excluded. In addition, it was not feasible to annotate certain types of material, for example records of evidence heard by inquiries and the text of legislation dealing with uranium mining.