SYDNEY (Dispatches) --
Thousands of protesters demonstrated on Saturday against the construction of a nuclear-powered submarine station at Port Kembla in eastern Australia as part of the AUKUS military agreement with the U.S., UK, and Australia, which is worth A$368 billion ($244.1 billion).
According to public broadcaster ABC, the Defense Department prefers to build a new east-coast submarine facility near New South Wales’ second-largest coal export port.
Trade union flags and banners were carried by protesters as they marched down the town’s main street in this community of about 5,000 people 102 kilometers (63 miles) south of Sydney to express their opposition to the base.
“I’m getting the sense of the renewable energy that’s in this community to keep coming out on the streets,” Greens Senator David Shoebridge, a prominent critic of AUKUS, told the crowd.
Participants said that the crowd’s size ranged from 2,000 to 5,000.
In regards to a location for a new east coast submarine facility, Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles stated last month that no decision had been made.
Following criticism of the contract for its expense, complexity, and potential sovereignty concerns from two former leaders, Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has defended the submarine project.
According to the March arrangement, Australia will buy American Virginia-class submarines before jointly producing a new class of submarines with Britain and Australia that will be manufactured in Australia by the early 2040s.
Arthur Rorris, secretary of the South Coast Labor Council and a member of the Labor party, said, “The rally is a reflection of the concern in the community about the proposed east coast nuclear submarine base.”
AUKUS would be the first time Washington has shared nuclear-propulsion technology since the 1950s when it partnered with Britain.
Based on the AUKUS, the U.S. and the UK will provide Australia with the technology and capability to deploy conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarines.
China, which last year called the security pact a threat to global security, clashed with the trio at the UN nuclear agency, accusing the partnership of being involved in the illegal transfer of nuclear weapon materials.
The International Atomic Energy Agency’s chief Rafael Grossi has warned that the submarines will be fueled by “very highly enriched uranium”, and suggested it could be weapons-grade or close to it.
Grossi also said that the AUKUS security pact could trigger race for nuclear submarines.
So far, no party to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) other than the five countries the treaty recognizes as weapons states -- the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France -- has nuclear submarines.