The Australian Government had hopes of collaboration with Britain on both nuclear power and nuclear weapons, and was particularly interested in developing the former, as the country was then thought to have no oil and only limited supplies of coal. Plans for nuclear power were considered along with hydroelectricity as part of the post-war Snowy Mountains Scheme, but Australia was not a party to the 1948 "Modus Vivendi", the nuclear agreement between the US and UK which superseded the wartime Quebec Agreement. This cut Australian scientists off from technical information to which they formerly had access. Britain would not share it with Australia for fear that it might jeopardise the far more important relationship with the United States, and the Americans were reluctant to do so after the Venona project revealed the extent of Soviet espionage activities in Australia. The creation of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) in 1949 excluded Australia from the Western Alliance.