If the plan goes ahead, the uranium would be trucked hundreds of kilometres from the mine at Roxby Downs to Adelaide and reloaded on to the train six kilometres from the centre of the capital city of South Australia state.

For most of the journey it would pass through some of the harshest landscape in the world, very sparsely inhabited by Aborigines, but to whom it is sacred earth.

Conservationists condemn the plan, with Friends of the Earth national nuclear campaigner, Dr Jim Green, warning of the danger of spills during any derailment and damage to the worldwide tourism image of the ?Ghan? passenger service on the line.

WMC have said a three-month trial would include two or three rail shipments involving a total of 20 shipping containers. Drums of ore would be loaded into the containers at Olympic Dam (the mine) and trucked to Adelaide, where the sealed containers would be loaded directly on to trains.

Port Adelaide Enfield mayor Fiona Barr said she "could not believe" the plan was being considered. She said some residents lived as little as 20 metres from the rail yards. "This could have half of Adelaide up in arms," she said. "Where is their risk management assessment?"

The company says they have been trucking uranium to Port Adelaide since 1988 without even a minor road accident.

However, Dr Green said expansion plans for the mine could triple the uranium ore transported and increase the risk.

The rail option would require the approval of the federal, Northern Territory and South Australian governments. The South Australian government said the plan was being considered.

A couple of years ago activists expressed fears that the Adelaide-Darwin line would also be used to bring other countries? nuclear waste into the Australian inland for final storage.

Dr Green wrote me that this is ?not at all likely because the political opposition would be overwhelming. The only way it could happen is if perhaps they put the waste on an off-shore island, which is precisely what they're planning to do with Australia's waste!?

A company called Pangea had tried pushing high-level waste on Australia, Green wrote, but met with huge opposition. ?In the longer term ... who knows??

The Howard government is more powerful than ever after an election in October, controlling both houses of parliament. Howard has said he wants to expand uranium mining and exporting. It?s also widely thought it was his idea to invite nuclear power producing countries to send their waste to Australia.

It is also feared he may revive plans for a waste dump in South Australia which he gave up for fear of losing marginal parliamentary seats in the state which could have cost him the election. The dump was to be on land where a dozen British atom bombs were exploded 50 years ago. Aborigines who lived in the area were not told and many died. Many are also still sick with radiation ailments.

An Aboriginal friend tells me that Aborigines work in the mine under appalling conditions. Many are ill, ?you see them coughing blood or with blood coming out of their noses, things like that.?

Activists allege the mine is using more of the precious Artesian Basin undergrouind water than stated, which is beginning to effect the ecostructure of the sensitive South Australian inland.

The world?s largest known uranium resource, the Olympic Dam deposit contains 38 percent of the total global economic uranium base. Uranium mined by WMC at Olympic Dam is a leading source for uranium oxide used by power generators throughout the world. WMC is considering an expansion of the mine that may triple annual sales and cost more than four billion Australian dollars.

The Olympic Dam operation also produces a large amount of copper and some gold from the world's fourth largest remaining copper and gold resources. WMC?s fertilizer operations, accounting for about 15% of sales, leases land where it mines for phosphate. WMC has mining operations in Australia, Asia, and the Americas.

WMC is currently assessing whether to move ahead with a 2.4 billion euro expansion of Olympic Dam and the federal government is discussing with China a possible agreement to sell Olympic Dam uranium as an energy source.

A Swiss-based company, Xstrata, is trying to acquire WMC in a hostile takeover bid.

Analysts say virtually every major mining company has hired investment bankers and consultants to examine a bid for WMC. WMC Resources is also the world's third-largest miner of nickel, producing more than 110,000 tons of it annually. (Nickel is a main ingredient in making stainless steel.)

Xstrata has been lobbying Australian officials and has begun promoting its bid in newspaper advertisements. It has also reportedly hired a telephone canvassing company to prepare for a house-to-house campaign to win over WMC's shareholders. Xstrata used similar tactics last year to win a proxy battle in its takeover of the Australian coal miner MIM Holdings.

The Adelaide-Darwin railway, which cost 1.4 billion Australian dollars, is being touted by its private operators and governments as ?a trade corridor, a significant conduit for the export and import of goods between markets in Asia and beyond.?

But a leftwing writer, Hero Cee, suggests its purpose is military. ?The freight line is a dead loss for actually shifting freight. Most of the fresh produce which it carried in its first month was destroyed in transit. Put simply, the line is too bumpy and the fruit and vegetables, etc become bruised and smashed regardless of how carefully they were packed. Not much is being said about this at present, but the line is carrying only 30% capacity.

?It made me wonder why [Prime Minister]John Howard was in such a rush to spend so much money on this railway line, particularly at a time when basic services such as health and education are being slashed. And he doesn?t seem at all upset that the line is a complete dud for carrying freight. Sure, it also carries passengers, but this will never make a huge financial return.

?Then the penny dropped. On March 3, 2004 the Minister for Defence, Senator Robert Hill, made an announcement to the media. ?The Army will use the Darwin ? Adelaide railway to move 35 armoured vehicles to Port Augusta for a training exercise.? It seems the line is just perfect for transporting Leopard tanks. Why didn?t I think of that? Senator Hill continued, ?The railway is a vital part of our national security, improving the mobility of the Australian Defence Forces and helping us to overcome the strategic isolation of our northern military bases.?

?These northern military bases are frequented primarily by United States military forces. Here?s what I see. We have a very expensive rail line that is not suited to its stated purpose. The line does suit heavy military purposes and is already being used as such. Could John Howard have had this line built just for military purposes??

A subsidiary of the Halliburton company we know in the Iraq context owns 20% of the stock in the railway company. Asia Pacific Transport (APT), the private sector consortium that won the contract to design, build and operate the railway, will run it for 50 years before transferring it back to public ownership. The private sector contributed about 60% of the funding, governments the rest.

Australia, which will discuss a free trade agreement with China when Prime Minister John Howard visits the country in April, has also begun preliminary talks to export uranium to Beijing. Australia?s foreign affairs department has confirmed it has had meetings with Chinese officials on China?s willingness to meet Australian conditions for export, which stipulate that the uranium not be used for military purposes or re-exported. Any exports of Australian uranium must be approved by the government.

The possibility of China becoming the 12th destination for Australian uranium comes ahead of planned discussions between China and Australia to study the feasibility of a free trade agreement, which would further capitalise on the already booming bilateral trade.

In just over 10 years Australia and Canada will control between 40 and 60 per cent of the world's uranium production and sales. Never before have two countries had such power over a significant and sensitive global energy source. Demand is set to rise sharply and within eight years Russian nuclear fuel produced from dismantled bombs will have dried up. WMC on its own will therefore control between 20 and 30 per cent of the global market.