Hundreds of anti-nuclear demonstrators converged on the Australian headquarters of global mining giants BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto Sunday to mark one year since Japan's reactor crisis. Organised by a group of anti-nuclear Japanese expats called Japanese for Peace, the 500-strong march through southern Melbourne stopped at the offices of Rio and BHP to call for an end to uranium mining in Australia.
Organiser Kazuyo Preston said the demonstration aimed to draw attention to the dangers of nuclear technology on the one-year anniversary of the quake and tsunami in Japan, which triggered a crisis at the Fukushima nuclear reactor.
Preston said it was especially important to remember the disaster in Australia, which has the world's largest uranium reserves and is a leading supplier of the energy resource to Japan and other nuclear nations.
"It's very important to us to commemorate this day, so that Australian people will remember what's been happening in Fukushima and Australia's involvement as a major supplier of uranium to Japan, including the damaged reactors in Fukushima," Preston said.
"We had a good crowd today and I hope this global anti-nuclear movement will strengthen and lead to phasing out of nuclear power."
Preston said Rio and BHP had both supplied uranium to Fukushima from their Australian mines and if there was "any way we can stop uranium mining in Australia then there will be no Fukushima".
Australia does not use nuclear power but it is the world's third-ranking uranium producer behind Kazakhstan and Canada, exporting 9,600 tonnes of oxide concentrate worth more than Aus$1.1 billion (US$1.2 billion) a year.
It also has the world's largest uranium reserves, holding 23 percent of the global total, according to the World Nuclear Association.
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