While in India, Australia's Prime Minister Tony Abbott was expected to sign a deal to sell Australian uranium that will be the single most significant advance in bilateral relations in decades. The journey to get to this point has been tortuous and the controversy is unlikely to fade anytime soon.
The main impetus for the change in Australia's policy came from geopolitical changes (the re-emergence of China and India as major players and the relative decline of the United States) and the increased importance of the bilateral relationship with India rather than commercial calculations.
Nuclear energy is used by about 30 countries to generate 11 percent of the world's electricity, with almost zero greenhouse gas emissions. Currently there are 437 operating reactors and around 70 under construction.
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