The high-profile AUKUS alliance has been thrown some bad news

A few weeks on from the announcement of the AUKUS alliance between Australia, the US and Britain – there are renamed calls to scrap the use of weapons-grade uranium on submarines.

It follows a group of former US officials and experts writing to  President Joe Biden, warning the new deal will impact America’s national security and encourage hostile nations to purchase uranium in retaliation.

Former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull says Australia’s lack of nuclear expertise could lead to “more plug and pray” than “plug and play”.

In a bid to heal relations, a former Nato deputy secretary-general is calling on Australia to acquire non-weapons grade uranium from France instead.

In the letter to Biden, seven signatories call on the president to commit to using low-enriched uranium.

It says “the Aukus deal to supply Australia with nuclear-powered attack submarines fuelled with weapons-grade uranium could have serious negative impacts on the global nuclear regime and thereby on US national security”.

The core of the concerns is the fact that if a non-nuclear country like Australia gets this uranium then other countries would use that example to justify their own acquisition.