Canada is poised to join an elite club of "advanced nuclear nations" that - led by U.S. President George W. Bush - plans to promote nuclear energy as a key solution to global warming and to control the international movement of enriched uranium and radioactive waste, CanWest News Service has learned.

Canada's membership in the controversial Global Nuclear Energy Partnership would open a new battlefront in the divisive national debate over what this country should do to help avert a planetary climate- change crisis.

And joining the partnership - initiated by the Bush administration last year, and now counting Russia, China, Japan and France as members - could raise thorny questions about the costs and benefits to Canada, including potential impacts on the country's thriving uranium export industry, its CANDU reactor sales and its capacity to dispose of nuclear waste.

Responding to a CanWest News Service request about Canada's possible involvement in GNEP, a Foreign Affairs spokesperson said: "Canada has been invited to join the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership and to participate in the next meeting scheduled to take place on Sept. 16 in Vienna."

The statement added: "Canada is reviewing the proposed GNEP Statement of Principles and a decision on Canadian participation will be made shortly."

One of the key components of the partnership is its push for the development of "fast-cycle reactors" - not yet proven to work commercially - that would produce less nuclear waste, but could compete internationally with the CANDU.

The cornerstone commitment of the partnership is its "cradle-to-grave" plan to have all spent fuel from the world's reactors shipped back to GNEP uranium-supplier nations for secure disposal at nuclear-waste sites.