> Introduction
> Increased terrorist risk?
> New reactor challenge
> Puppet regulator
> Target-rich environment
> Insurance
> Nuclear weapons

Introduction

The terrorist attack in the United States on September 11 has led to renewed calls for the Australian government to cancel its plan to build a 20-megawatt nuclear research reactor in the southern Sydney suburb of Lucas Heights.

The Coalition government insists that the reactor plan will proceed. Labor is being pressed to state unequivocally that a Labor government would cancel the contract with Argentinean reactor constructor INVAP; to date, Labor has only committed to reviewing the contract. A firm commitment from Labor may be necessary to secure preferences from the Australian Greens in the November 10 election.

If built, the new reactor will replace the 10-megawatt HIFAR reactor operated by the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) at Lucas Heights.

In the 1970s, an assessment of the danger of a terrorist attack on the HIFAR reactor found that the reactor could be vulnerable and an explosive in the 'right' place could have severe consequences.

In 1983, nine sticks of gelignite, 25 kilograms of ammonium nitrate, three detonators and an igniter were found in an electrical sub-station inside ANSTO's boundary fence. Two detonators failed, and one exploded but did not ignite the main charge. Two people were charged over this incident.

In 1984, a threat was made to fly an aircraft packed with explosives into the HIFAR reactor; a person was charged and found guilty on two counts of causing public mischief. In 1985, after vandalism of a pipe, radioactive liquid drained into Woronora river, and this incident was not reported for 10 days. In 1986 an act of vandalism resulted in damage to the sampling pit on the effluent pipeline.

On October 9, 2001, NSW and federal police were alerted to a bomb threat directed at ANSTO. Australian Protective Services and NSW police conducted a full search of ANSTO after a threat was made, Sergeant Jim McGrath of Sutherland police said. Channel Ten received the anonymous call at about 10pm. "There was a veiled threat the reactor was going to go up," McGrath said. The grounds of ANSTO were searched but no device was found. (<news.ninemsn.com.au/national/story_19935.asp>)

Increased terrorist risk?

A number of recent reports on possible terrorist activities in Australia are summarised below. It should be noted that:
* in most cases it is impossible to judge the accuracy of these reports;
* some of the statements/activities reported below may be politically motivated and/or may constitute racist scapegoating (just as the New Zealand saga evoked ignorant, racist commentary). Again, it's difficult to comment on the basis of the limited information on the public record.

Prime Minister John Howard said on September 21 that terrorist cells linked to Osama bin Laden could be operating in Australia. "It's possible'', he told Melbourne radio 3AW. "I said earlier you can't assume that Australia is immune from the threat of terrorism. We are not as high on the scale of vulnerability as other countries but we are on it and you can't rule it out.'' (Sydney Morning Herald Online, September 21, 2001.)

Howard said on October 3, "We should also understand that this country is more vulnerable as a result of what happened on September 11. ... We should not be alarmed, nor should we be complacent, nor should we lazily assume that it can't happen here." Asked about suggestions terrorist organisations were present in Australia, Howard said, "It's always hard in an area like this as to what one can say to keep the public informed and equally what one can't say so as not to compromise traditional approaches to intelligence and security". ("Howard warns Australia more vulnerable to terrorism", Sydney Morning Herald Online, October 3, 2001.)

Howard said on October 8 that Australia will be involved in a long military campaign with the US against the Taliban that will result in casualties and a greater risk of retaliation from terrorists. He said, "I don't want to overdramatise, but equally I don't want to underestimate or understate the obvious, and that is that all of those who stand with our American friends are potential targets." ("We are potential targets, warns PM", The Age, October 9, 2001.)

The (Melbourne) Age reported on September 22 that a number of Australian-based supporters of bin Laden, based primarily in New South Wales, came to the attention of Australian authorities in the late 1990s as ASIO and the Australian Bureau of Criminal Intelligence made security preparations for the Olympics. The CIA and the FBI discovered the link during investigations into the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Centre. The investigations found that those eventually convicted had telephoned Australia in the months before and after the bombing. Australian DIO operatives have expressed alarm at the growth of bin Laden "cells" throughout South-East Asia. (Paul Daley, Bin Laden's Australian links, The Age, September 22, 2001.)

The Sun Herald reported on September 30 that ASIO agents investigating "sympathy links" to the US terrorist attacks have conducted a series of home raids in Sydney's south-west. Backed by 70 federal and NSW police, operatives from ASIO executed warrants on at least five houses in Sydney, seizing passports, financial records and other documents. According to the Sun Herald report, one address targeted is believed to be that of a Middle Eastern Australian employed as a baggage handler at Sydney airport. ("ASIO swoop in hunt for bin Laden link", John Kidman, The Sun Herald, 30 September, 2001; also Sydney Morning Herald Online <www.smh.com.au>)

The Australian reported on October 12 that "About 100 members of four international terrorist groups linked to Osama bin Laden have been identified living in Sydney and Victoria raising funds for the holy war against the United States." ("Bin Ladin groups in our suburbs", The Australian, October 12, 2001.)

The Australian reported on September 29 that "Australian intelligence sources have confirmed that associates of terrorist Osama bin Laden are active in Australia. ... Senior intelligence sources told The Weekend Australian yesterday that information about activities of bin Laden's associates in Australia was uncovered during intensive investigations shortly before the 2000 Sydney Olympics. ... The official confirmed that ASIO was investigating a number of individuals in Australia suspected of having links with bin Laden or his terrorist groups." (Cameron Stewart, "Bin Laden's men are here", The Australian, September 29, 2001.)

Dr Rohan Gunaratna of the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence at the University of St Andrews in Scotland says there is evidence of terrorist operations in Australia. He said terrorist groups were increasingly looking for money and support within countries such as Australia and New Zealand because of tighter anti-terrorist measures in Europe and America. (Mark Metherell, "Terrorist groups already here, academic warns", Sydney Morning Herald, September 27, 2001.)

Howard said on September 16 that the risk of terrorist activity against Australia was greater than in the past. "I don't share the complacency of some that this can't happen in Australia. I think it can", he said. Howard said that Australia may be at a greater risk because of Federal Cabinet's decision to invoke the ANZUS treaty. (Chelsey Martin and Steve Lewis, "Threat of terrorist attack in Australia is rising: PM", Australian Financial Review, September 17, 2001.)

ANSTO and its reactor are connected to the ANZUS alliance - and therefore potentially more attractive terrorist targets. The Department of Foreign Affairs and the Australian Safeguards Office stated in 1998 that the operation of a research reactor "first and foremost" serves "national interest requirements". One of the "national interest requirements" said to justify the operation of a reactor, and the construction of a new reactor, is the ANZUS alliance. The Coalition and the Labor Party not only support the US nuclear weapons program, but also consider the US nuclear umbrella to be a centerpiece of Australian defence policy.

New reactor challenge

During the debate over the planned new reactor, ANSTO has dismissed the possibility of a sabotage event leading to a 'loss of coolant' accident which would expose the reactor core. This has been challenged by nuclear engineer Tony Wood, former head of ANSTO's Division of Reactors and Engineering. Wood told a Senate inquiry on October 25 last year that a sabotage event "has the potential to have much worse consequences [than ANSTO's selected 'reference' accident] and the environmental impact statement admits there is no way of assessing its likelihood."

Industry minister Nick Minchin said in an August 26, 2000 media release that "The ANSTO facility is a research reactor and as such its fundamental design greatly limits the risk to public safety from an accident." In fact, research reactors are designed for ease of access in order to facilitate the range of purposes for which they are used - isotope production, scientific research and commercial applications such as silicon irradiation. This ease of access bring with it obvious risks. Wood told the Senate inquiry last year, "Pool reactors have a free water surface and this very feature, which is desirable for flexible access to the core, also makes it vulnerable. The EIS claims credit for the massive reinforced concrete block of the pool but this is the very thing which would direct the force of an explosion into the reactor core and expel fuel and water."

Wood asked for an assessment to be carried out and the results published "of a true upper-bound event based on major sabotage" with involvement from the SAS or other military experts: "When it comes to the confidential assumptions about types and quantities of explosives which could realistically be used I would like to see input from SAS or other military experts because I believe, in the light of what has been said on this topic in the EIS, a degree of realism is missing at ANSTO."

Wood does not believe that such an assessment would conclude that the risks are unacceptable, but merely asks that an assessment be carried out. ANSTO prefers to stick its head in the sand and to continue to deny the possibility of a loss of coolant accident.

US-based nuclear expert Daniel Hirsch, in a 1998 report commissioned by Sutherland Shire Council, makes the important point that the trivialisation of safety risks actually increases risks: "... a blind belief that no serious harm can occur, no matter what goes wrong with the reactor, no matter how serious the operator error, produces a markedly increased risk, as any review of past nuclear accidents will demonstrate."

Wood says he has "confidence that the security arrangements will match the perceived threat". Perhaps so, but one aspect of the security system is vetting access to ANSTO's reactor plant, and I've entered on numerous occasions without showing my visitor's pass or having my bag inspected - and I'm sure the same applies to others. Yet ANSTO says on its website, "Employees and long term visitors always have to show passes - this is nothing new and car boots are often checked. Indeed ANSTO security is constantly under review to ensure that the highest standards are maintained." Bollocks.

Another risk is the possibility of sabotage carried out by an ANSTO staff member. Anonymous ANSTO staff members, self-described as ANSTO "Staff Representing Truth in Science", said in a March 3, 2000 letter to a Sutherland Shire councillor: "The last 4 years have seen unprecedented industrial actions resulting in lost-time for ANSTO. The staff morale is exceptionally low ... because of unprecedented ineptitude at senior management level." In October 2000, an ANSTO scientist described management/staff relations as being on a "permanent war footing".

If an act of sabotage or terrorism, or a serious accident, does occur, the consequences could be serious. Wood told the Senate inquiry that the proposed new reactor "when operating at full power will contain sufficient fission products to cause great damage off site if a large fraction were to escape."

Sutherland Shire Council has obtained documents from the (now defunct) Nuclear Safety Bureau saying that a loss of coolant accident would be 1000 times worse than the maximum hypothetical accident being planned for by ANSTO and the Argentinean contractor INVAP. Daniel Hirsch said in a written submission to the Senate inquiry: "We [Hirsch and ANSTO] all appear now to agree that if the replacement reactor were to suffer a loss of coolant, or a power excursion accident that tosses out the coolant, and if the confinement fails or is bypassed, radioactivity releases thousands of times higher than that assumed in the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) could result. Indeed, we are in fairly close agreement how large those releases would be, and presumably, how many cancers would result."

Puppet regulator

Last year, the CEO of the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency, John Loy, issued a licence to ANSTO to prepare a site for a new reactor at Lucas Heights. That licence was granted despite the absence of a detailed reactor design. Loy issued a statement saying: "I accept that the critical point in the evaluation of the reference accident is the exclusion of a fast loss of coolant. But I believe that the ARPANSA review and the international peer reviews commissioned in the EIS process demonstrate that this is a valid scenario. Of course, it is possible to posit all sorts of simultaneous disasters and suggest superhuman powers to saboteurs or enemies; but that does not help the careful evaluation of a real life proposal."

ARPANSA will not commit to insisting on changes to design specifications for the proposed new reactor in the wake of September 11 terrorist attack and subsequent events. ARPANSA's regulatory branch is inhabited by no less than six former ANSTO staff members, and the executive director of ANSTO sat on the panel which interviewed applicants for the position of CEO of the 'independent' regulator, ARPANSA.

ANSTO's website says that if an aircraft hit HIFAR, "even in the unlikely event that an aircraft was able to hit the relatively small target presented by HIFAR, the radiation doses to persons beyond the buffer zone would be relatively low (comparable to natural background radiation in some parts of the world)." ARPANSA says that "even if the HIFAR was struck by a large aircraft, radiation doses to persons beyond the 1.6 km buffer zone would be relatively low (comparable to natural background radiation in some parts of the world)." The near-identical wording may say something about the lack of independence of ARPANSA.

Decoded, these statements from ANSTO/ARPANSA mean that in the event of an aircraft hitting the reactor, the radiation doses within ANSTO's nuclear plant could be significant, and beyond the 1.6 km buffer zone, thousands of people might be subjected to smaller radiation doses, but would still be at slightly greater risk of fatal cancers and other pathologies. In addition to direct exposure to radiation, the contamination of land and property could have major social and economic consequences.

ANSTO says the planned new reactor will be designed to withstand the impact from a Cessna 500 Citation aircraft. Sutherland Shire Council is concerned about the adequacy of this standard given the close proximity of both the Sydney and Bankstown airports, which cater for aircraft much larger than a Cessna 500.

Target-rich environment

The existing reactor, and the proposed new reactor, are not the only risks at Lucas Heights; it is a target-rich environment, to use the military jargon.

The isotope processing plant, in which irradiated targets, including enriched uranium targets, are processed, is vulnerable. The targets and the liquid waste stream contain uranium fission products and transuranics including long-lived plutonium isotopes. As at mid 1996, 6000 litres of this waste was stored at Lucas Heights. The waste is slowly being solidified by ANSTO. It was identified as having potential for off-site consequences in the event of an accident (such as an earthquake or a major fire) by the government's Safety Review Committee, which complained on several occasions in the 1990s about the delays in the solidification of this waste. There are no plans for long-term storage or disposal of the solidified waste.

Another obvious target at Lucas Heights is the irradiated (spent) fuel from the reactor. On April 2, 1996, maritime workers refused to load a shipment of spent fuel from ANSTO because they had not been forewarned of the shipment. The spent fuel was driven aimlessly around Sydney while the dispute was resolved, because of a law preventing the convoy being stationary for more than two hours (presumably for security reasons). (Sydney Morning Herald, September 5, 1998.)

A previous spent fuel shipment was no less farcical: a spent fuel convoy from Lucas Heights was followed onto a ship by a truck driven by Greenpeace campaigners.

Insurance

In the event of a serious reactor accident at Lucas Heights, Sydney residents would find it extremely difficult or impossible to pursue compensation claims  (www.geocities.com/jimgreen3/insurance.html).

With respect to government indemnity, Tony Wood said in his written submission to the Senate inquiry that both ANSTO and the government have "misled" the public and that ANSTO's EIS was "genuinely confused, or ... had set out deliberately to confuse."

Wood notes that, unlike many countries in Europe, North America, and elsewhere, Sydney residents are not protected by absolute liability, which frees the claimant from having to prove anything other than damage as a result of a reactor accident. Instead, Sydney residents effected by a nuclear accident would only have recourse to common law, which requires that the aggrieved party prove both damage and negligence.

Wood says it is a "mystery" to him why the Government has not accepted absolute liability: "It looks as if the Commonwealth lacks confidence in the low level of public risk claimed for the new reactor in the EIS. If it is so low what is to be lost by offering the guarantee."

Nuclear weapons

A perception that ANSTO might be involved in weapons production might make it more attractive as a terrorist target. From the 1940s to the early 1970s, successive Australian governments pursued nuclear projects which, by design or accident, brought Australia closer to a nuclear weapons capability. Consequently, as former ANSTO scientist Murray Scott noted in a submission during the reactor EIS process, there has been an accumulation of programs and facilities at Lucas Heights which could be seen internationally to have ambiguous potential for weapons development. These facilities, which have been publicly declared and in most cases shut down, include a fluorine plant, a uranium hexafluouride synthesis plant, a laser enrichment project, a centrifuge cascade development (uranium enrichment), a split table experimental facility, fuel irradiation facilities in HIFAR, and hot cells in current use for chemical extraction of components from irradiated uranium targets.

There is no interest in pursuing a nuclear weapons program in Australia, although anyone (e.g. state or sub-state terrorists) could be forgiven for believing otherwise given that the stated objectives of the plan for a new reactor - isotope production and scientific research - are barely credible. The real agenda behind the reactor - which the government describes as the "national interest" agenda - includes supporting the nuclear alliance with the US, continuing to play a nuclear watch-dog role in the Asia Pacific (which also ties into the US alliance), maintaining Australia's place on the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency and other such activities.

Radioactive materials at Lucas Heights might be fashioned by terrorists or saboteurs into a 'radiation bomb' in combination with explosive materials - not nearly so lethal as a nuclear bomb but nonetheless capable of spreading radiation far and wide.

Fresh fuel and spent fuel at Lucas Heights contain highly enriched uranium which might provide the fissile material for a nuclear weapon, although it would require extensive facilities and expertise; far simpler for a terrorist to blow up the reactor, spent fuel, or the isotope processing plant or associated liquid waste stockpile.

Here are some of the comments about security at ANSTO before and after the December 17, 2001 Greenpeace stunt in which 40-50 campaigners walked or climbed into ANSTO's Lucas Heights plant, clambered over the reactor and a spent fuel storage building, and generally did whatever they wanted while another Greenpeace campaigner made a mockery of ANSTO's 'secure air space' with a paraglider. Incredibly, ANSTO's chief executive Helen Garnett was not sacked despite her overall responsibility for security (such as it is) at Lucas Heights.

Before:

"All our nuclear facilities and materials are protected in accordance with stringent national and international physical protection obligations. These arrangements are reviewed regularly by the Australian Safeguards and Non-proliferation Office and other national security authorities. Very few reactors around the world would enjoy the security arrangements that HIFAR does. HIFAR is located inside its own stringent security zone within the Lucas Heights site which in turn has its own general security arrangements. The site is surrounded by a 1.6 kilometre buffer zone that excludes residential development."
-- ANSTO website, "Q & A - ANSTO Research Reactor Alleged Security Threats", October 23, 2001.

"Following those [September 11, 2001] attacks, the responsible government security authorities issued a general notification to all Commonwealth agencies to maintain enhanced security awareness. ANSTO is presently maintaining increased vigilance."
-- ANSTO website, "Q & A - ANSTO Research Reactor Alleged Security Threats", October 23, 2001.

"Attempts to create the impression that security is wanting at the Lucas Heights Science and Technology Centre are irresponsible and achieve little except raising unfounded anxiety."
-- letter from Helen Garnett to St George & Sutherland Shire Leader, October 10, 2001 (on ANSTO's website)

"Jim Green ... attempts to create the impression that security is wanting at the Lucas Heights Science and Technology Centre. This is far from the truth."
-- letter from Helen Garnett to Australian Financial Review and Daily Telegraph October 17, 2001 (on ANSTO's website)

After:

"We won't be rushed into any change of security procedures, because we know we have very strong security."
-- Federal science minister Peter McGauran

"Notwithstanding the low level of threat, as assessed by the Australian Protective Services, their [Greenpeace campaigners'] whereabouts was monitored."
-- ANSTO media release, December 18, 2001.

"If there is a breach, then the Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation is in the hot seat."
-- A spokesman for the Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Authority, The Advertiser, December 18, 2001. ANSTO in the hot seat? Really? Not likely - Helen Garnett sat on the panel which selected the CEO of the 'independent' regulatory agency ARPANSA.

Chris Bullock: Australia has one significant nuclear facility, the aging nuclear research reactor at Lucas Heights on the edge of Sydney. The reactor works with low enriched uranium, not weapons grade uranium, and it's a very small reactor compared to the big power plants of the US, Russia, France and the UK for example.

Next month a decision will be made on the construction of a replacement reactor, and the nuclear regulatory authority, ARPANSA, has asked the body that operates the Lucas Heights reactor, ANSTO, to provide a safety review. And that includes an assessment of the likely impact of a jet airliner crashing into the reactor.
Both ARPANSA and ANSTO refused our request for an interview about safety and security at the reactor.
The Federal Science Minister told Background Briefing the review is still being drafted. The Minister, Peter McGauran.

Peter McGauran: It's certainly sensible to take a precautionary approach of this kind, but how do you guard against a jumbo jet crashing into the ANSTO research reactor or a high rise building, or Parliament House? Do you set up a battery of surface-to-air missiles? Do you build some sort of structure into which an aircraft plunging from the sky would not penetrate? We have to be sensible about this. It is far more likely in a risk assessment that entry would be at a ground level.

Chris Bullock: Just before Christmas, Greenpeace demonstrated the ease with which the Lucas Heights reactor site could be breached. They entered at ground level, just as the Lucas Heights risk assessment had anticipated.
Activists dressed as barrels of waste, jogged through the front gate, catching the security guards by surprise. Using the demonstrators at the front gate as a diversion, separate teams of Greenpeace activists used ladders to climb the perimeter fence, and then they climbed on top of the reactor building, as well as the building holding the highly radioactive spent fuel, and a communications tower.

Greenpeace Man: At the moment we've got approximately 50 activists that have invaded this plant. We've got activists on top of the reactor containment building. This is the ancient nuclear reactor that they have operating at the moment. The reactor is continuing to produce radioactive waste. To highlight that fact we have activists on the roof of Building No.27. Building No.27 is Australia's largest radioactive waste dump. ANSTO has no management plan, they do not know what to do with Australia's …

Chris Bullock: All the while a paraglider was buzzing the complex, in direct contravention of the air exclusion zone at Lucas Heights. Steven Campbell of Greenpeace Australia.

Steven Campbell: ANSTO, after September 11th claimed they would maintain enhanced security vigilance at the facility at Lucas Heights. We went in on December 17th with ridiculous ease. Secondly, even the International Atomic Energy Agency agrees that there is absolutely nothing you can do to protect a nuclear facility from the style of attack we saw in New York on September 11th. So even if they say that they're maintaining an air exclusion zone, it doesn't make any difference. What sort of air exclusion zone? How are they going to defend it? It's right next to a major airport, so there's nothing that they can do, is really what we're saying.

Chris Bullock: The Science Minister has dismissed the Greenpeace action at Lucas Heights as a propaganda victory in a phoney debate, and he's suggested future demonstrations at the site may be met with greater force. But Peter McGauran did acknowledge that if people with serious weaponry and intent got in as easily, it would be a different story.

Peter McGauran: It would be a much more serious situation, agreed. So getting through the front gate is nothing but a propaganda victory. Landing -

Chris Bullock: But that was a distraction. That was the point.

Peter McGauran: That was a distraction for the climbing of the second fence that surrounds the reactor. OK.

Chris Bullock: Who were the critical people.

Peter McGauran: Correct. However they then have to access the building, there is no possibility of them getting into the reactor, they cannot get through the air lock that separates the outside entrance of the building into the reactor. It is purely a propaganda victory. Now if Greenpeace want us to have guard dogs and teargas and to wrestle to the ground their next demonstration, well maybe we'll look at that, maybe we need water hose canon, but it's a phoney debate, because it is only of propaganda value. There was no prospect of them gaining entry to the reactor itself.

Chris Bullock: The Minister's confidence isn't shared by a former manager at the Lucas Heights reactor. Tony Wood, by coincidence, gave a report to the nuclear regulator, ARPANSA, a week before September 11th, suggesting that a terrorist group could easily penetrate the defences at the reactor. And he's critical of the reactor's disaster emergency plan, which he says underestimates the likelihood of radiation affecting nearby suburbs in a worse case scenario, like September 11th. He believes Greenpeace did ANSTO a favour by highlighting the weaknesses at the reactor.

Tony Wood: Well my reaction was the very thing that I was saying could happen, and ANSTO said couldn't happen, did happen. And I think that Greenpeace, while I'm not a supporter of Greenpeace, I think Greenpeace really provided a great service to ANSTO this day, because they demonstrated that the defences weren't as good as ANSTO claimed. Now I would hope that the ANSTO management would say, 'Thank you very much, you've shown us where there's a weakness, so that we can improve it.' But instead of that, they tried to talk it down and say, 'Oh well, they penetrated those barriers but they couldn't penetrate the other.'

Chris Bullock: But is it a big leap from standing on top of a building with a banner to actually doing some serious, dangerous damage?

Tony Wood: Well ANSTO is saying yes there is a big difference. I'm saying if you've got an AK47, it's not. It's foolish to pretend that people who are properly armed and trained and ruthless and prepared to kill people, which these terrorists are, they could. They could penetrate the building and they could place charges against the reactor and severely damage the reactor and the containment. But all is not lost, because if you have a good emergency plan, I believe you can prevent the members of the public, who are most threatened, that is the young people, you can prevent them from receiving damaging exposure. But you must have a good emergency plan, and you must be properly equipped and you must be prepared to implement it. Now I don't believe that that situation exists at the moment.

Chris Bullock: A former Manager at the Lucas Heights Nuclear Research Reactor, Tony Wood.

A man claiming to be an Australian citizen and linked by intelligence agents to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network has been arrested while trying to cross into Afghanistan from Pakistan.

The man is in detention in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, where he is being interrogated by officers of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation and Pakistan's military Inter-Services Intelligence agency.

Official sources in Islamabad confirmed to The Sunday Age that the man was arrested several days ago at the border post of Chaman, in southern Pakistan, carrying an Australian passport.

"It's correct but I can't go into details," one official said. "We are trying to establish his ethnic background and the bona fides of his travel documents."

Pakistani intelligence officials have refused to reveal the name of the man or the reasons they believe he is linked to al Qaeda.

If confirmed, the case would be the first time that a link has been established between an Australian citizen and the terrorist network blamed for the September 11 bombings in New York and Washington that killed more than 6000 people.
Officials of the Australian high commission in Islamabad yesterday refused to comment on the case. It is believed that Australian consular officials will visit the man within days.

In Canberra, a spokesman for Foreign Minister Alexander Downer confirmed that consular officials at the high commission were checking details of the case.

"At this stage we don't have any knowledge of the situation of this apparent Australian," the spokesman said.
Pakistani intelligence officials told Dawn, Pakistan's largest-circulation English-language daily newspaper, that the suspected Australian had been arrested with two German nationals.

The paper said the three men had been flown under tight security aboard a Pakistan International Airways flight from the southern city of Quetta to Islamabad on Friday.

It quoted "well-placed intelligence sources" as saying that the three were being held at an Inter-Services Intelligence military detention centre where they were being interrogated by a joint team of ISI and FBI agents.

Another German national arrested at Chaman two days before the three detainees is reported to have been extradited to Germany.

The border post at Chaman is the main road crossing between southern Pakistan and Afghanistan, linking Quetta with the city of Kandahar, the Taliban headquarters.

While Pakistan closed its borders when allied bombing began two weeks ago, people with valid visas for Afghanistan are being allowed to cross. Thousands of refugees fleeing the bombing of Kandahar have also been allowed to enter Pakistan at Chaman in recent days.

The Federal Government yesterday stepped up its review of anti-terrorism measures,opening the way for tougher security laws.

The Attorney-General, Mr Williams, announced a "high-level committee" to examine the impact of the attacks in the United States on Australia's counter-terrorism arrangements.

The announcement came as a British-based academic warned that Australia must take tougher measures to stamp out terrorist groups or face an increasing risk of strikes within its borders.

Dr Rohan Gunaratna of the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence atthe University of St Andrews in Scotland says there is evidence of operations in Australia. He named several groups including Lebanon's Hezbollah, the Palestinian Hamas, the Kurdish PKK and the Tamil Tigers, as having a presence here, and said the Tamil Tigers had already raised about $1 million in Australia.

Dr Gunaratna said his claims were based on five years' research but declined to say to what extent he had derived his information from Australian intelligence agencies. He said terrorist groups were increasingly looking for money and support within smaller liberal democracies like Australia and New Zealand because of tighter anti-terrorist measures in Europe and America.

Dr Gunaratna said Australia should establish an anti-terrorist force, describing its present laws and legal system as "very weak".

Mr Williams's office yesterday refused to comment on Dr Gunaratna's claims of a terrorism presence - its customary response to queries about national security operations. But a Government source said it was possible the current review would consider anti-terrorism legislation similar to Britain's.

The review committee, headed by the secretary of the Attorney-General's Department,Mr Robert Cornall, will report to Cabinet by the end of October.

Mr Williams said the committee would assess and recommend changes "as necessary" to Australia's current counter-terrorism arrangements and review counter-terrorismlaws.

It will also quiz industries in security-sensitive areas, such as airlines, information and telecommunications and banking.

Mr Williams has asked for the Commonwealth's key departments to take part in thereview, as well as the senior intelligence agency, the Office of National Assessment, theAustralian Security Intelligence Organisation, the Federal police and the Immigration Department.

AUSTRALIAN intelligence sources have confirmed that associates of terrorist Osama bin Laden are active in Australia.

The nation's spy agencies are understood to have provided significant new information to the US about the size and structure of bin Laden's global terrorist network.

This top-secret intelligence was passed to the US within days of the terror attacks on New York and Washington.

Senior intelligence sources told The Weekend Australian yesterday that information about activities of bin Laden's associates in Australia was uncovered during intensive investigations shortly before the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

"Our investigations improved our knowledge and threw up a few things we weren't aware of," one official said.

Although it gave no hint of the recent US terror attacks, the information gleaned by ASIO and other agencies has played a key role in helping US authorities put together the jigsaw of bin Laden's global network.

The official confirmed that ASIO was investigating a number of individuals in Australia suspected of having links with bin Laden or his terrorist groups.

The news came as John Howard said yesterday Australia would do what it could to freeze the finances of suspected terrorists.

"The Government will direct the Reserve Bank to use the banking foreign exchange regulations to stop any payments in Australia by or to the 27 terrorist organisations identified by the United States President in his executive order," he said.

The move builds on existing sanctions against the Taliban regime in place since December 1999.

The US terror attacks have also caused a shake-up within ASIO and almost the full resources of the domestic spy agency are now being directed at tracking down terrorist threats within Australia.

Officials said the postponement of CHOGM would further free up resources to target potential terrorists.

The Australian last week revealed telephone records that showed the extremist Muslim group that bombed the World Trade Centre in 1993 had made calls to Australian homes, which police believed may have been terrorist safe havens.

ASIO agents investigating "sympathy links" to the US terrorist attacks have conducted a series of home raids in Sydney's south-west.

And yesterday, in an exclusive interview with The Sun-Herald, a mother of two claimed she was held face down at gunpoint and asked about a terror group linked to Osama bin Laden.

"Now we have to move," the convert to Islam claimed after the raid. "Our neighbours are all scared that we are terrorists and they are angry at us. Society has forced us to live in a cage."

Her assertions over firearms were denied by the authorities.

Backed by 70 federal and NSW police, operatives from ASIO executed warrants on at least five houses in the city's Arabic belt this week, seizing passports, financial records and other documents. Heavily armed members of the NSW State Protection Group were placed on emergency standby throughout the tense operation.

One address targeted is believed to be that of a Middle Eastern Australian employed as a baggage handler at Sydney airport. Others scrutinised are thought to belong to particular Islamic congregations described by mainstream Muslim clerics as "isolationist".

According to Federal Government sources, others identified as official persons of interest have also been selectively interviewed over the past week about their backgrounds, and business and personal affairs.

The top-level investigation is the first proof that the US's global anti-terrorist campaign has reached Australian shores.

The Sun-Herald observed one of the raids on Thursday morning, when about 20 federal and State officers searched a home unit in Lakemba, interviewing those inside for more than two hours. A mother of two young children who was at home at the time later claimed police turned the residence "upside down" and interrogated her in front of her family.

The woman, who asked not to be identified, said: "They actually thought we were part of this terrorist group [linked to the American attacks].

"They told me to get on the floor and pointed a gun in my face."

The allegation has been categorically rejected by senior government staff. "There is no way a firearm was used and there is no way anyone was forced to the ground," one said. The same source told The Sun-Herald: "There is nothing to suggest that there is a specific threat to Australia at the moment.

"However, there is a current heightened state of security. Federal and State police have ... conducted a range of interviews and a number of enter-and-search warrants.

"They have been conducted under the ASIO Act and with the approval of the Attorney-General [Daryl Williams]."

According to the woman whose unit was searched at Lakemba, ASIO seemed intent on probing the fact that she had travelled to Pakistan within the past 12 months.  "They took a video and they took from our house magazines because we have subscription magazines about Islam and what is happening in the world, as well as our bank account details," she said.

Of particular note, they seemed interested in a journal article quoting from a book thought to have been written by Osama bin Laden titled Declaration Of War, the woman said. "Why this was so, I don't know. The book itself is available from any bookshop."

The woman said her husband visited Mecca last June, then decided to go to Pakistan before returning home. "Before we were married a year ago, he rang me and asked me to go to Pakistan with him because he thought it might be a good place to live," she said.

"He asked me, 'Come with me and we'll live there' and I said 'No way'. I didn't want to just pack up and leave.

"He then went by himself and we agreed that if we were still in love when he got back, we would get married."

When her husband returned to Sydney he had been stopped by police and interviewed about the trip, the woman said.

"They asked him if he attended any [military] training camps or if he was training there," she said.

The woman said both she and her husband were converts to Islam and had both been born in Australia.

"But now we have to move. Our neighbours are all scared that we are terrorists and they are angry at us. Society has forced us to live in a cage.

"ASIO said to me they will be back and that they are watching us.

"When this happened to me my husband told me to go to our mosque for the rest of the day. Today I have a friend staying with me."

The couple's passports have also been confiscated.

Both worship at one of Lakemba's two Mosala Muslim prayer groups. "The police ask us whether we have anything to do with funding at Mosala," the woman said.

"We have been told that they are watching this too and that others who go there have been questioned."

So far no arrests have been made in relation to the raids.

"This has not been in response to a specific threat or evidence of any link between people in Australia and what took place in the US," Federal Government sources said.

"Specific individuals and groups are being examined, not the broader communities they come from."

------------------------------------------------------------------------

BY THE CLOCK
Thursday, September 27

7am:  Up to 70 detectives, federal agents and ASIO operatives assemble at Campsie police station. Only those NSW officers with intimate "local knowledge" are selected for the task.

8.30am: Two unmarked cars head towards Campsie shops before looping almost due west. Several addresses close to the Lakemba mosque are later visited by police.

8.40am: The main convoy - three unmarked sedans and a minivan - moves off south-west then splinters before regrouping north of Canterbury Road, on the southern fringe of Lakemba.

8.50am: Arriving at the target address, the convoy is met by a second people-mover carrying armed federal agents and the raid begins.

11.30am: About 20 officers emerge from the flat, some carrying bags. One vehicle returns directly to AFP headquarters in Sydney. The others head back in the direction of Campsie.

More terrorist attacks were expected so Australia could not be too careful with its security, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said today.

Mr Downer said the September 11 terror attacks in New York and Washington could not be considered the last acts of terrorism.

"You just can't be too careful with terrorism," he told the Ten Network.

"We do expect further terrorist attacks around the world in the months and years ahead.

"Therefore we really just can't be too careful in doing what we can to track down the terrorism and bring security to Australians."

The government has announced new anti-terrorism measures, including randomly placing armed security guards on flights as soon as Christmas.

Mr Downer said the steps would enhance security.

"Obviously there's no 100 per cent guarantee, no-one can ever give that," he said.

"But what we can do is enhance the security of our aircraft, and I think this proposal will do that as well as improving security on the ground."

Source: AAP

All western countries including Australia were now more vulnerable to terrorism after the September 11 attacks on the United States, Prime Minister John Howard said today.

He yesterday announced the establishment of a raft of new anti-terrorism measures.

"We should also understand that this country is more vulnerable as a result of what happened on September 11," Mr Howard told radio 2UE.

"Every western society is more vulnerable.

"We are not as vulnerable as the United States or some other western nations, but we are more vulnerable."

He said he faced a dilemma between not sounding alarmist and taking measures to provide additional assurance and security.

Mr Howard said no government could give an absolute guarantee that some act of terrorist madness would not occur.

"We should not be alarmed, nor should we be complacent, nor should we lazily assume that it can't happen here," he said.

Asked about suggestions terrorist organisations were present here, Mr Howard was constrained in his reply.

"It's always hard in an area like this as to what one can say to keep the public informed and equally what one can't say so as not to compromise traditional approaches to intelligence and security," Mr Howard said.

"The reason why there's always a reluctance to go into too much detail about intelligence is that you might frighten off some of the sources of human intelligence.

"Part of me wants to disclose everything and another part of me says that if you do that you jeopardise your capacity to get information in the future."

Source: AAP

There is evidence Osama bin Laden has tried to obtain nuclear and biological weapons, according to a US expert on arms control. Michael Moodie, the president of the Chemical and Biological Arms Control Institute in Washington, says American officials are worried bin Laden may already have some toxic chemical agents. In Australia, there's previously been little fear of such attacks. But that has all changed.

Compere: Tony Jones
Reporter: Margot O'Neill

MARGOT O'NEILL: Soon after the World Trade Center was attacked, a small biotechnology company in Sydney was contacted by the Australian Defence Department.

DR BRUCE CORNELL, AMBRI: They have indeed contacted us subsequent to the bombings and not surprisingly have shown continued interest.

MARGOT O'NEILL: That interest stems from Ambri's development of a super fast molecular biosensor that can detect biological warfare agents within five minutes.

DR BRUCE CORNELL: What you want to have is the earliest possible warning of the presence of some form of biological weaponry, whether it's a bacteria or a virus. And the fact that we can get that answer very, very quickly, means we have that strategic advantage.

MARGOT O'NEILL: Ambri's biosensor captures and marks a virus or bacteria without having to rush the sample back to a laboratory, thereby losing precious time in the fight against widespread infection. And Ambri wasn't the only company in the Defence spotlight. Melbourne-based CSL Limited has developed a vaccine against a possible bioterror agent, Q-fever. It was also contacted by the Defence Department and the Federal Government's working group on bioterrorism. The company says it could mass produce the vaccine in a year, if required. While hundreds of gas masks are being sold in stores across Australia, most experts regard the chance of such an attack as extremely remote. Although the man who headed Olympic security says there is now a heightened risk.

BRIGADIER ADRIAN D'HAGE, AUSTRALIAN DEFENCE FORCE (RETIRED): I think Australia has been most fortunate up to this period of time I think the events of September 11 changed all that and whilst Australians are strongly in support of the Government's decision to unequivocally support the US, that almost certainly raises the bar.

MARGOT O'NEILL: Because of a $23 million Olympic program, Australia had developed a specialised response unit for such terror attacks -- it's now been reactivated.

BRIGADIER ADRIAN D'HAGE: It will take a little while to crank that up but the legacy of the Games the Government spent invested many millions of dollars in developing a world class response.

MARGOT O'NEILL: There are three major threats, the most unlikely is a radiation bomb, or dirty nuke, which spreads radioactivity. Or a chemical attack like the nerve gas released in a Tokyo subway in 1995, by the Aum Shinrikyo terrorist group which killed 12 people. Or a biological attack involving deadly diseases such as anthrax, Q-fever or the bubonic plague. In reality, it's extremely difficult to grow, transport and then disperse such diseases. Aum Shinrikyo failed 12 times to release botulism toxin and anthrax, despite having built a laboratory and recruited specialist scientists. But that shouldn't stop Australian authorities from taking more dramatic action over crop dusters according to one security expert.

DR ADAM COBB, DEFENCE ANALYST: One of the things we should look at is liaison with crop dusting companies, for example, and possibly the placement of transponders on the aircraft so you know where it is at all times. And to have exclusion zones around the major cities where crop dusters shouldn't go in the first place. And to look at what kind of measures you might take in case a crop duster did approach an exclusion zone.

MARGOT O'NEILL: The Defence Department refuses to comment on bioterrorism, but an article written by one of its most senior medical officers, Captain Andrew Robertson, warns that Australia has some key vulnerabilities, including inadequate security at many and research and medical facilities. The article, published two years ago, in 'Microbiology Australia' also warns that besides death and disease in the event of an attack, panic, quarantine, rioting and looting would also threaten national security and that terrorists may also decide to target animals and plants which could devastate trade and lead to hunger. And it says doctors must be better trained to identify the symptoms of such exotic and deadly diseases.

BRIGADIER ADRIAN D'HAGE: GPs have to realise that anthrax has flu symptoms but flu epidemics tend to ramp up gradually. You don't get 200 people on your doorstep overnight.

MARGOT O'NEILL: The Defence Department is also working with Ambri to develop a 24-hour monitoring device for air and water quality.

State and federal police were on full alert following a bomb threat at    Australia's only nuclear reactor in Sydney's south overnight.

Australian Protective Services and NSW police conducted a full search of the Lucas Heights facility after a threat was made about 10pm, Sergeant Jim McGrath of Sutherland police said.

Channel Ten received an anonymous call about 10pm which was diverted to its Brisbane office.

"There was a veiled threat the reactor was going to go up," Sgt McGrath told AAP.

The grounds of the Commonwealth facility were searched but no devices found.

Only a skeleton staff were at the reactor at the time and they were not evacuated, Sgt McGrath said.

"We've always patrolled it but naturally because of what's happening, we've stepped up our patrols," he said.

Sutherland Council has long been campaigning to have the nuclear reactor shut down and for plans to build a second reactor there to be shelved because of safety concerns.

The threat comes just 24 hours after the US and Britain launched military action in Afghanistan with the full backing of the Australian government.

-- AAP

Greens Upper House MP Lee Rhiannon today said that the NSW and the Federal Governments have been complacent on the potential risk of a plane attack on Sydney's Lucas Heights nuclear reactor.

Ms Rhiannon said, "Australia can no longer tolerate the terrorist vulnerability of having a nuclear reactor in our largest city.

"Before the September 11th attacks, the Minister of State said that our calls to close Lucas Heights were like the plot of a James Bond novel or a Mission Impossible film.

"The Government have passed the buck to the Commonwealth.

"The Premier should now reveal how emergency plans have been changed to take account of the new plane attack threat.

"Have flight paths been altered to create a security safety zone around Lucas Heights?

"The Chairman of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has recently stated that nuclear plants are 'part of the homeland defence' and this is also true for Australia.

"The Greens do not believe there is any particular immediate risk of an attack on Lucas Heights," said Ms Rhiannon.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Extract of Hansard ( October 6, 2000)

LEE RHIANNON (NSW Greens)
I direct my question to the Special Minister of State, representing the Premier. Since the Federal Government announced that its preferred tenderer for any new Lucas Heights nuclear reactor is the Argentinian company INVAP, which supplied nuclear technology to Iran, Algeria and Libya and was closely aligned to the former military government in Argentina, and given intense public concern about the recent negotiations between the Federal Government and ANSTO regarding the tendering process and contract details for the second reactor, will the New South Wales Government call for a halt to these negotiations? Will the Government demand that ANSTO disclose all details on the full costs and design of the reactor, including the timeframe and contract obligations?

JOHNDELLA BOSCA (Special Minister for State)
It is a very good question, but it would make an even better script abstract for a James Bond novel or a Mission: Impossible film. I am not aware of the specific commercial activities of the company to which Ms Lee Rhiannon referred in her question. I am aware, as a member of the public, of the Federal Government's intention in relation to ANSTO. As the honourable member knows, that is, except for development and planning issues, entirely a matter for the Commonwealth Government. If the Premier has anything to contribute by way of an answer to the question, I am happy to bring the question to his notice and ask him to provide further details.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Fact Sheet - nuclear security following World Trade Centre attacks

US

The Washington-based think-tank the Nuclear Control Institute has called for the deployment of anti-aircraft weapons around nuclear plants.  Dr Edwin Lyman, NCI Scientific Director has said that a large commercial jet "would in fact have a high likelihood of penetrating a containment building". (www.nci.org)

The Federal Aviation Administration has warned civilian pilots "In the interest of national security, and to the extent practicable, pilots are advised to avoid the airspace above, or in proximity to, sites such as nuclear power plants, power plants, dams, refineries, industrial complexes, and other similar facilities. Pilots should not circle (or) loiter in the vicinity of such facilities." (www.faa.org) The US Air Force has been instructed to intercept and as a last resort, shoot down planes which violate these zones.

Australia

It is believed that the Lucas Heights facility was not designed to withstand a crash by a large jet since it was built before they were in civilian use.
The new reactor planned to replace HIFAR is designed to withstand the impact of a Cessna Citation small passenger jet.

France

The Government have stationed troops around nuclear facilities.

An EU study has just concluded that an air attack that ignited radioactive fires at the la Hague nuclear facility in France would cause 1.5 million cancer deaths over the long term, making it worse than Chernobyl.

Germany

Lothar Hahn, Director of the German commission for reactor safety (RKS) has responded to the Septermber 11 events by saying that an air attack is the 'worse-case scenario' for a nuclear facility.

Dan Cass,  Advisor
Office of Lee Rhiannon, MLC
NSW Greens
<www.nsw.greens.org.au/lee>

The Lucas Heights nuclear reactor would be placed under military guard as part of a counter-terrorism plan to be presented to state and territory leaders today by the Premier, Bob Carr.

 Mr Carr told Parliament yesterday that federal laws should be amended to allow states to call on defence personnel to provide security around important infrastructure sites, such as the reactor in Sydney's south, if there were credible information about threats of terrorism.

"Commonwealth legislation ... requires that an incident is actually occurring or likely to occur, and the states must show that they are unlikely to be able to meet the threat," he said. "These are high thresholds and in a time of heightened threat, a more flexible approach is required."

Mr Carr will raise the issue when state and territory leaders gather in Canberra for a service commemorating the victims of the Bali bombings. It will be followed by a meeting to discuss a raft of issues, including anti-terrorism strategies.

Mr Carr said he took the threat of terrorism seriously: "It is no longer an abstraction, no longer a CNN news item," he said. "It is here and it is now, and the first victims lie in the Bali morgue. Let us not ask ourselves 'if' - let us prepare for 'when'."

Mr Carr also said he was considering a proposal to give NSW police special powers to stop and search vehicles, drivers and pedestrians in a designated area.

"The management committee of the NSW Crime Commission is drafting a standing reference to ... enable it to work with the Police Protective Security Group to investigate any terrorist activity. That means bringing the commission's considerable powers to bear on suspected terrorist crimes being planned.

"These powers include the power to compel people to come forward and answer questions, and the power to compel documents. The commission can also obtain warrants to conduct surveillance and tap phones."

The Government has also approved an extra $5 million for the police to buy bomb-disposal and forensic equipment.
"We are looking at other police needs and I will be saying more about this in the near future," Mr Carr said. "I am receiving regular briefings concerning the level of threat and the police response.

"The police force is now reviewing its counter-terrorist capacity and building on the valuable Olympic experience. This review commenced before the events in Bali but has, of course, taken on a new urgency."

AUSTRALIA'S only nuclear reactor is so vulnerable to a terrorist attack it should be shut down until proper security is in place, a former senior Howard Government adviser warns.

Dr Michael Selley said yesterday hundreds of spent fuel rods were stored in a "tin shed" near the perimeter fence of the reactor.

"Lucas Heights should be shut down temporarily, decommissioned and the army called in to implement proper permanent security," the former chief-of-staff to Science Minister Peter McGauran said.

Dr Selley, a scientist and head of a private bio-tech firm, described the security at Lucas Heights, 30km south of the Sydney CBD, as woefully inadequate and easy pickings for a terrorist group.

In December, 46 Greenpeace protesters broke into the Lucas Heights compound and staged a sit-in on the roofs of the reactor building and the shed that stores spent fuel rods.

Extra razor wire and cameras were installed after the protest, and security was increased following the Bali bombing. But the facility is still manned by Australian Protective Security officers rather than military personnel.

Dr Selley said explosives could be thrown over the fence on to the building holding the spent fuel storage tanks.

The resultant contamination of highly radioactive material could be dispersed across large parts of Sydney under certain wind conditions.

"The safety of the people of Sydney is at stake," Dr Selley said. "Yet this is one of the most unprotected sites in the world."
The Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, which runs Lucas Heights, says its reactor is well-protected by concrete and its literature says the reactor is "the size of a washing machine".

But thousands of drums of radioactive waste at the site and the spent fuel rods, which are potentially more dangerous than the reactor, do not have similar protection.

No one lives in a 1.6km zone around the site, but 65,000 people live within 8km.

Military personnel would be deployed to guard the Lucas Heights Nuclear research reactor, under a New South Wales counter-terrorism plan being put to tomorrow's special meeting of state and territory leaders in Canberra.

On the eve of tomorrow's major counter-terrorism conference, New South Wales Premier Bob Carr has outlined the plan he will put to defend against terrorist attacks in Australia.

His proposals include using the defence forces to protect critical infrastructure sites around the nation, especially Australia's only nuclear reactor at Lucas Heights in Sydney.

He is calling for a review of intelligence and information sharing arrangements between the commonwealth and states and territories.

He wants overseas anti-terrorism measures looked into, things like increased police stop and search and phone tapping powers. Mr Carr will also argue for a new ministry of homeland security. He says the terrorist threat is real and must be addressed. "Let us not ask ourselves 'if', let us prepare for 'when'," Mr Carr said.

A bigger reactor is on the way for the south Sydney facility as disquiet about security at the site grows. That more than 600 spent nuclear fuel rods are lying in a shed at Lucas Heights makes a number of Sydneysiders nervous. But they might take comfort from the fact that until a couple of years ago those spent fuel rods were lying under nothing more than a tarpaulin.

"The problem is, Lucas Heights is really a quasi-military installation," says Dr Michael Selley, "and that makes Sydney a target for international terrorism. Terrorists appreciate that even if the Federal Government doesn't."

Selley, a medical research scientist at the Australian National University and former chief of staff for Science Minister Peter McGauran, began voicing his concerns about security at Lucas Heights three weeks ago. His motivation for doing so was simple: "I've relocated to Sydney and I've got my whole family here, and I'm terribly worried about the security of the site."

His fears centre on the proximity of the spent fuel rods to the site's perimeter fence. He believes it would not take a great deal of imagination or explosives to send the shed skywards and its radioactive contents across the suburbs of Sydney. "Forget about someone stealing those rods," he says. "If they were blown up in situ, it would dispel large amounts of radiation into the local environment."

Selley is not the only person who sees the potential for such an attack. According to the handbook on terrorism used by the NSW Fire Brigade in preparation for the Olympics, "a nuclear bomb threat is unlikely to be carried out for a number of reasons, including its extreme expense, its logistical difficulty and the enormous amount of technology necessary to develop and disperse such a device. The true threat comes from a 'dirty bomb' or explosive dispersion device, a conventional explosive wrapped or impregnated with radioactive material, the release of which is intended to contaminate an area or population."

Steve McIntosh, head of security at Lucas Heights and employed by the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, does not share Selley's concern. "First, these rods are individually buried in holes in the bedrock that have been lined with cement. The office they are in is locked and in a separate fenced-off area that is under constant surveillance. So if anyone enters the area, we know about it."

McIntosh says traditionally the best source of protection has been the fear of self-contamination: "If anyone handled these rods without all the protective gear on, they would be dead or disabled before they reached the fence although obviously after September 11 we have got to rethink the protective powers of self-contamination."

He argues that even if an explosion were to blow the office apart and shatter the bedrock, the only people really vulnerable to contamination would be those working on site. "A huge explosion would leave chunks of radioactive metal lying around the area. It would not send a plume of radioactive material into the environment there just isn't that much radioactive material left in the rods.  Outside the blast zone the impact would be nil."

The reactor at Lucas Heights is about to be replaced with a 20 megawatt reactor, twice the capacity of the current facility. Selley says for medical research purposes, Australia's needs would be met with a 2 megawatt reactor.

So why the upgrade? "Six or seven years ago, a Senate committee found that the case had not been made for a replacement reactor. But the Howard Government has fast-tracked its replacement and it is going to happen. The  only reason for one this size is so the government can retain the capacity to switch to a nuclear weapons program if it needs to further down the track," Selley says. "I'm not opposed to having nuclear weapons, but I do think everyone should be consulted before we begin making them."

Asked about this theory, a spokesperson for McGauran told the Weekend AFR: "It is a ridiculous proposition. It would be in contravention of government policy, national law and Australia's international commitments. In any event, neither the current reactor nor the replacement reactor will use, or have the capacity to produce, weapons-grade material."

[Comments on above:
* ANSTO's McIntosh says the nuclear fuel elements are so radioactive they would quickly result in death or disability if handled, then next breath he's saying a huge explosion would not send a plume of radioactive material into the environment as there isn't much radioactivity left in the rods. He hasn't the faintest idea what he's talking about. He is a lawyer.
* the weapons agenda ascribed by Selley is doubtful, though propping up the nuclear alliance with the USA is certainly part of the agenda.
* McGauran is wrong when he says the new reactor couldn't produce weapons-grade material. They could produce small amounts of weapon-grade plutonium, and larger (but still quite small) amounts of 'reactor-grade' plutonium which could still be used in weapons. -------- JG]

NSW Premier Bob Carr has got it wrong in giving a safety all clear for the controversial second reactor currently under construction at Lucas Heights in southern Sydney according to key environment and residents groups.

Sutherland Shire resident Lorraine Dixon is angry at the Premier's comments: "On the one hand we're being told that there is a threat to Australia, and that the reactor is a potential target, and on the other we're being told not to worry about it, but it's up to us to be 'vigilant'. Well we are worried, and the only thing that will make us feel safe is the removal of this threat by closing the reactor."

Commenting on the terrorist risk on last night's ABC TV's Lateline program Mr Carr stated "there is no reason for alarm from people living in the Sutherland Shire. There really is none."

The Premier's comments appear to have been based on a briefing given to a NSW Cabinet Committee by the CEO of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation. ANSTO is the agency building the reactor and was described by a Senate Inquiry into the reactor plan as having a "culture of secrecy so embedded that it has lost sight of its responsibility to be accountable to Parliament".

"ANSTO are neither a credible nor independent source and the federal nuclear regulator ARPANSA has failed to release a promised review of the radiological consequences of an accident on Sydney," said ACF nuclear campaigner Dave Sweeney. "There is no basis for complacency over this flawed reactor plan."

"Bob Carr's latest assurance is at odds with his previous concern about Lucas Heights being a terrorist target, and discounts concerns expressed on safety and security issues by the  local  community and many others", said Greenpeace nuclear campaigner James Courtney.

"If Bob Carr is serious about the safety of the people of Sydney he should demand that the Federal  Government review its decision to construct a second nuclear reactor, twice as large as the old one, in Sydney, before more taxpayers' money is wasted," said Courtney.

The Reaction coalition has called on the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency  to honour its previous commitment and release the details of its studies into the radiological  consequences of a terrorist attack on the Lucas Heights nuclear complex.

"An attack at Lucas Heights could effect areas up to forty kilometres from the reactor site," said  Michael Priceman from People Against a Nuclear Reactor. "It is irresponsible of the Carr Government to ignore the fact that our emergency services are ill-equipped to deal with such an event and beefed up anti terror laws are not the answer. Legislation will not help us  once an  attack or accident has occurred."

LONG-TERM fatalities from radiation exposure after a terrorist attack on Sydney's Lucas Heights nuclear reactor would be "within the limits of tolerability", says an official report, to be released tomorrow. The Radiological Consequences report, understood to have been heavily edited at the behest of ASIO, analyses the health consequences for residents of acts of sabotage such as targeted explosions or a deliberate crashing of a large commercial aircraft into the experimental reactor on Sydney's southern outskirts.

An aircraft is unlikely to penetrate the radioactive core of the reactor because of a reinforced concrete reactor block and a steel liner and fail-safe shutdown systems, according to the report, prepared 18 months ago by the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation.

But it was inevitable that such an incident would fuel a large fire that could cause radioactive material to disperse over "some distance", says the report, prepared at the request of the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency.

Details from the analysis, outlined in a briefing paper to ARPANSA chief executive John Loy and obtained under FOI laws by the Australian Conservation Foundation, confirm the "collective radiation dose to the population could exceed ARPANSA's siting criterion".

"There would however be no immediate fatalities from radiation exposure," it says.

"Projected long-term fatalities would be well within the limits of tolerability suggested by overseas regulated authorities. The number of deaths of passengers on board a loaded plane and immediate casualties on the ground . .. would exceed by far any casualties that might result from radiation exposure over the subsequent 30 years. "

The report was completed in time for ARPANSA to consider its contents before granting a licence for a replacement reactor last April.

But it was not publicly released, despite recommendations from three independent advisers that it be published so residents around could review its contents before the licence was granted.

Dr Loy also promised the release would coincide with that of new commonwealth recommendations for emergency procedures and public health and safety intervention measures in the event of an attack on the reactor, released some months ago.

Those recommendations have already been heavily criticised by at least six Sydney councils for lifting the levels of radiation exposure that trigger public distribution of stable iodine tablets to children.

ARPANSA had hoped the latest report would be released earlier this month but there had been "delays out of our control", a spokesman said yesterday.

ACF nuclear campaigner David Noonan said the delay denied the opportunity for public debate over the potential risks and appropriate emergency responses because the deadline for public submissions on intervention levels closed next Friday.

In the lead-up to the 2000 Sydney Olympics, New Zealand police alleged a possible terrorist threat to the Lucas Heights reactor. The allegations have since been proven unfounded.

The two Afghan men stared at the New Zealand coat of arms on the wall above the judge's shoulder.

Abdul Maasud, a bear-sized man with a thick black beard, and his slighter-framed co-accused, Mohammed Ismail, were in the Auckland District Court for a routine appearance.

Their case - both men were on fraud charges - seemed no more interesting than the dozens of others that would be called that afternoon.

Judge Fred McElrea listened to the defence and prosecution lawyers sort out the dates for their upcoming trial before he dropped his bombshell.

He had been looking at the files and had some concerns.

"The allegations take on a somewhat different light in view of September 11," Judge McElrea told the court.

"In view of these developments I am concerned about the prospect of them not responding to their bail, particularly in view of their alleged admissions of false immigration statements and alleged connections to military organisations."

Their lawyer, Paul Dacre, was as shocked by the development as the police.

What was supposed to be a straightforward appearance was about to turn into a national security scare.

Judge McElrea decided it was best to hold a full bail hearing and set out his reasons in the most sombre of court language. The Herald has not been able to report what he said until now.

"They are appearing on charges relating to alleged fraudulent use of documents to attain refugee status," said the judge.

"Both men are from Afghanistan. The charges have some relation to recent world events, at least potentially if the summary of facts is to be believed. The allegation is that both people hold the rank of commander in certain armed forces and disguised that fact on admission to New Zealand. They are allegations of a very serious nature. I am very concerned that in light of recent events that they may not respond to their conditions of bail."

The court hearing was on September 27, two weeks after hijackers slammed jetliners into the World Trade Centre in New York. The world was tense.

The papers Judge McElrea was so worried about included police summaries of the cases prepared more than a year earlier.

The summaries alleged that Ismail, 30, had connections with "a figure of national importance in Afghanistan and a person holding the rank of commander".

They alleged that searches of a Mt Albert home where Ismail once lived had led to the discovery of a map of Sydney with the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor highlighted.

Of Maasud, 42, they said he had admitted being a former director-general of the most important area of border on the northwestern frontier in Afghanistan - not the persecuted liquor salesman he claimed to be when he arrived in New Zealand in August 1998.

None of the allegations have been proved in court.

Maasud and Ismail were among a group of refugees who had been under police investigation since early 2000, though there were not initially any security fears.

Detective Sergeant Craig Turley, of the Henderson police, had begun looking at allegations of a people-smuggling racket operating out of Auckland. It was believed about 1000 Iranians, Afghans, Iraqis and Pakistanis had entered New Zealand illegally using the people smugglers as their travel agents.

In March that year, about 20 homes and businesses around Auckland were raided as part of the investigation codenamed Operation Amid. More than 7000 documents were seized - photographs, letters, travel papers, maps.

Most of them were of interest to investigators looking at the people-smuggling ring. But a selection of them became the centre of a security scare here and in Australia.

In one house in Hendon Ave, Mt Albert, police found the Sydney map. As well as highlighting the nuclear reactor, the map was marked with what was termed "an anti-surveillance route" - directions from a Sydney suburb to the reactor that curled around the city rather than taking the most direct path.

In another house police found a red notebook that included details of how New Zealand would respond to a terrorist attack. It included information on police command structures and notes from Operation Lawman, a regular multi-agency counter-terrorist exercise.

Also found were videos and photographs of military scenes, some including images of recent New Zealand arrivals who had not told authorities of their battle histories.

There were satellite phone records, too. One phone number in particular sparked significant interest. Police ran a sting operation in which they rang the number using an uncover agent. He established the number was for "an Islamic military unit", according to court documents obtained by the Herald.

The discoveries prompted a security alert.

Was there a terrorist cell in Mt Albert? Was there a sleeper cell? Or was it just a group of former fighters who had not told the whole truth when they claimed asylum in New Zealand?

All this was unfolding in the months leading up to the Sydney Olympics.

Turley refuses to discuss details of the cases, but it is understood the information was sent to police intelligence officers. They forwarded it to colleagues across the Tasman in case there was a threat to the Olympics.

News of the investigation was broken by Weekend Herald correspondent John Andrews in August 2000.

Though politicians and some media outlets mocked the story, its details were confirmed by high-ranking police at the time.

The Herald can now reveal what became of the investigation.

Interest initially focused on the map and the notebook.

Investigations established that the map itself was about 20 years old. No one could say when the markings were added to it.

The man at whose house the map was found, Mohammed Omar Ahmadzi, said it had been bought in a garage sale. Another man gave the same explanation for the notebook.

Investigators established that the references in it were dated, too - the Operation Lawman exercise was one in the late 1980s and the command structure was one for the 1990 Commonwealth Games.

As for the satellite phone calls, the court documents do not say, but it is understood from community sources that the phone call had gone through to high commanders in the Northern Alliance, the force in Afghanistan that was at that time fighting the ruling Taleban.

Police refuse to discuss the details of the cases. But it seems that while the investigations established several refugees had undisclosed military backgrounds and material that caused suspicion, they were not terrorists. Or a sleeper cell.

The Northern Alliance's diplomatic representative in Australia, Mahmoud Saikal, told the Herald that members of the alliance were not involved in terrorism.

"The struggle has involved fighting against terrorism," Mr Saikal told the Herald in an interview last year. "There were atrocities that took place but I believe that a good percentage of people who were involved were victims of circumstances themselves. One has to be very careful about not being too quick to make a conclusion about the criminal background of someone."

Though the police will not comment, Turley revealed the police's conclusions about Maasud and Ismail in an affidavit filed with the court.

"I would like to emphasise that in relation to [the pair] and their associates, we have not found at this stage of our inquiries any evidence of any danger to any persons within or outside of New Zealand," said Turley.

By the time that affidavit was lodged, however, Maasud and Ismail were behind bars in New Zealand's most secure prison at Paremoremo.

After the Auckland District Court hearing on September 27, Judge McElrea had remanded the pair until the next day for a jail hearing before another judge, Judge Arthur Tompkins. He accepted arguments that the court be cleared on the grounds of national security and suppressed all details of the hearing.

Court documents obtained by the Herald now show the men were remanded for a further week because everyone involved had been caught out by the developments.

Their lawyer, Dacre, said he had been unable to obtain proper instructions from the men because of language difficulties, while the Crown had not yet given him some information they were relying on for their case.

"[Mr Dacre's] view, and I understand that [Peter] Dean for the Crown agreed, was that because of the nature of the accuseds' background and the effect of events in the United States, the applications [for bail and suppression] which were for determination today simply could not properly be disposed of this afternoon," wrote Judge Tompkins.

Maasud and Ismail were taken away. But rather than being dealt with like any other remand inmate, they were driven to Paremoremo, a maximum security prison. The police helicopter shadowed the vehicle taking them there.
They were isolated from the other prisoners, who stood staring at them through the bars.

A week later, on the strength of Turley's affidavit, the pair were released on bail, though they were still due to face trial on the fraud charges.

The national security alert was over.

As the months went by, New Zealand backed away from its initial hardline response to September 11. Questions were asked about the detention of virtually all asylum seekers on arrival.

While terrorist alerts grew in the United States, New Zealand shifted back to a lower-key approach.

Authorities reconsidered their case against Maasud and Ismail and decided it was pointless to continue, says an immigration source.

"In the current environment it would only have inflamed paranoia and suspicions that would have been unwarranted."

Five months after the judge's order which triggered fears of a sinister new terrorist threat, Maasud and Ismail were back in court. The charges against them were quietly dropped and the two men went back to their jobs driving taxis.

Both are considering claims for compensation.

WORLD EXCLUSIVE - New Zealand detectives have foiled a possible terrorist plot to target a nuclear reactor in Sydney, venue for next month's Olympic Games.

Partly as a result of a police investigation in Auckland, Australian authorities may order the Lucas Heights reactor, on Sydney's southern outskirts, to shut down.

The plot may have been hatched by Afghani sympathisers of Osama bin Laden, the Western world's most wanted terrorist - a suggestion that is believed to have raised alarm in official circles.

Weekend Herald sources revealed that members of what appears to be a clandestine cell of Afghan refugees in Auckland continue to maintain direct telephone links with suspected terrorist organisations in their strife-torn homeland, including the Mujahadeen, a fundamentalist Muslim volunteer group.

Detectives in Auckland stumbled on the apparent reactor conspiracy during an investigation into people-smuggling by organised crime syndicates.

They conducted a series of house raids in March and found evidence suggesting a conspiracy to attack Lucas Heights:

* The lounge of a Mt Albert home was converted into a virtual command centre, complete with conference table and maps.

* A Sydney street map was found with the site of the 1950s era reactor and access routes to it highlighted.

* Entries in a notebook outlined police security tactics, standards and chains of command for the Auckland Commonwealth Games in 1990.

* Signs of a clandestine cell of refugees granted New Zealand residency.

Agreeing that the evidence had sinister overtones, a senior detective told the Weekend Herald:

"It is circumstantial and suspicious. If it was not for the Sydney games, they [Australian authorities] would not be so tetchy. There is quite a bit of interest there."

Copies of the seized material had been sent to Australia.

The detective said the fact that an Iranian refugee possessed police tactic notes could be construed as an attempt to work out how police would respond in certain situations.

Readers could conclude that police methods were similar throughout the West. The big question was: why did they have those notes?

"The worry is they can fly out, do the job and come back in," he said. "Why do this if you are trying to get away from the nastiness? There's something funny about them.

"The average refugees want to make a home for themselves, get away from difficulties they confronted in the past and relish peace and tranquillity."

The marked street map showing Lucas Heights was in the possession of a man from the Iran-Afghanistan region, who claimed he found it inside a National Geographic magazine he bought at a garage sale.

The messages on the map, seemingly in Western-style handwriting, appear to indicate the author has some knowledge of police surveillance measures.

It is understood no arrests have been made connected to any anti-reactor plot or anti-Western criminal conspiracy, but investigations are continuing.

Investigators believe that, while most refugees are probably genuine in their efforts to obtain sanctuary, the ultimate aim of those involved in clandestine cells is to support, finance and create mayhem in countries such as the United States.

New Zealand residency is especially attractive to them because they are more likely to avoid suspicion when entering target countries on New Zealand passports, said one investigator.

Police say the cell they uncovered consisted of about 20 mainly Afghani refugees in Auckland who, they believe, have been familiarising themselves with the Western way of doing things, possibly as a forerunner to foreign forays.

Delving deeper into the cell's affairs, detectives began to suspect some newcomers were using the relative obscurity and remoteness of New Zealand as a launching pad for more sinister activity.

They found strong indications that at least some had military training and were engaged in armed conflicts before being granted New Zealand residency.

Photographs of new New Zealand residents brandishing AK-47s point to their earlier lifestyles.

Officers believe some refugees granted residency have fought previously in hotspots such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Bosnia, Chechnya, Somalia and Sri Lanka.

The Auckland police investigation has revealed another worrying aspect - the frequency of trips supposedly near-penniless refugees have made to Southeast Asian countries such as Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia.

Bin Laden, for whom the United States Government is offering a $US5 million ($11.65 million) reward, is a multi-millionaire Saudi extremist living under the wing of the ruling Taleban in Afghanistan.

Accused of motivating Muslims worldwide to commit terrorist acts, he has told his followers that their only means to reach heaven was to attack the United States and Israel.

Department of Immigration statistics for the past two years show about 200 Afghanis had their applications for refugee status approved and 17 were declined.

Police revelations have prompted official alarm on both sides of the Tasman.

New Zealand law enforcement agents are liaising with their counterparts in Australia, the United States, Canada and Britain while trying to keep one step ahead of potential terrorists.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported calls in April last year for the Lucas Heights reactor to be shut down for the Sydney Olympics, as Atlanta authorities did with a smaller research facility there before the 1996 games.

The Herald quoted a leading anti-reactor campaigner as saying nuclear authorities in Australia acknowledged a potential terrorism threat when they increased security at the Lucas Heights reactor during the 1990 Gulf War.

Melbourne's Herald Sun newspaper reported, also in April last year, that Australia's spy agency - the Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation - was investigating claims that bin Laden was trying to recruit members in the city.

ASIO and counter-terrorist police were on alert following sensational allegations which emerged in a court case in which an Iraqi national was accused of attacking a family for refusing to join bin Laden's extremist Muslim group.

Two jailed Afghan nationals suspected of plotting an attack on Australia's nuclear reactor before the Sydney Olympics never intended to strike, according to a confidential NSW government report.

The report, obtained by AAP, said forensic tests on seized documents, as well as the backgrounds of the men involved, ruled out their involvement in a terrorist plot.

The two men, who were jailed last month on unrelated offences, were arrested in August last year, just before the Olympics.

The arrest followed a police raid on their Auckland residence which found maps highlighting a road near the Lucas Heights reactor.

The alleged terrorist plot re-surfaced this month after the pair re-appeared in a New Zealand court on charges relating to the fraudulent use of documents to obtain refugee status in New Zealand.

The claims sparked a call from NSW Premier Bob Carr for a full report on the case.

The confidential document, prepared by senior police, was handed to Mr Carr on October 5.

The report reveals the men were cleared of terrorist activity after forensic tests showed ink marks in the street directory dated back to the 1970s.

The report said the men had told New Zealand police at the time of the arrest that they had purchased the map at an Auckland garage sale.

"In addition to the forensic tests, the backgrounds of the individuals involved did not lend themselves to the possibility of them planning a terrorist attack in Sydney," the report said.

" ... investigators were of the firm view that they did not have the means nor the intention to attempt an attack in Sydney.

"The suspects claimed that they had purchased the map and other documents at a garage sale."

The report also ruled out claims the men were linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.

"Being Afghani nationals whose country had been involved in a drawn-out conflict with the USSR, it appears that the suspects had links to military training," it said.

"But advice had been received that there is no evidence that they had any affiliation with the al-Qaeda network."

-- AAP

Two Afghans originally suspected of plotting to attack Australia's Lucas Heights nuclear reactor have been secretly jailed in New Zealand.

The Judge who last week ordered their imprisonment cited national security as the reason.

A source told the Herald Sun the judge said in court police had information that suggested the men were Taliban commanders.

Judge Arthur Tompkins is believed to have said his decision to jail the men was also influenced by recent world events.

His decision was made in secret after he closed the Auckland District Count on Friday under section 138 of New Zealand's Criminal Justice Act.

This section enables judges to exclude members of the public in the interests of the defence or security of New Zealand.

The two jailed Afghans - charged months ago with offences relating to the fraudulent use of documents to obtain refugee status in New Zealand - were on bail until their court appearance last week.

Judge Tompkins said in court that if the policy summary of offences was to be believed, then the charges had a potential relationship to recent world events.

He said the allegation was that both men held the rank of commander in certain armed forces and had disguised that fact on admission to New Zealand.

Judge Tompkins went on to say there were other allegations of a serious nature and that in light or recent events they might not answer their bail.

He then ordered that the two Afghans be jailed.

The pair were among several Afghans arrested during a long-running New Zealand police investigation into people smuggling by organised crime gangs.

Detectives raided an Auckland home in March 2000 and discovered what was thought to be a plot to attack Sydney's Lucas Heights reactor in the lead-up to the Olympic Games.

Circumstantial evidence suggested Afghan sympathisers of Islamic fanatic Osama bin Laden had set up a terrorist cell in New Zealand to plan disruptions to last year's Olympics.

During the raid police found what they described as a virtual command centre in the Auckland home.

They seized a Sydney street map which had the site of the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor and its access routes marked.

Detectives found entries in a notebook outlining police security tactics.

Telephone records showed the refugees had maintained direct contact with suspected terrorist organisations operating in Afghanistan.

Olympic security chiefs in Sydney were alerted and security at Lucas Heights was immediately stepped up.

NZ police continued to investigate the suspected Afghan terrorist cell.

The two jailed Afghans were arrested as part of  that investigation,

They are now in Auckland's maximum security Paremoremo Prison and are due back in court tomorrow, when they are expected to try to overturn the order to hold them in custody.

New Zealand Policy national crime manager Bill Bishop yesterday said he could not comment on the case of the two jailed Afghan men.

But he recently told a US news agency the possibility NZ police had foiled a terrorist plot aimed at Lucas Heights during the Olympics was still "in focus to us".

"And it would be naive to suggest it is not uppermost in our thoughts," Mr Bishop said.

New Zealand Police spokesman Michael Player also refused to comment on the jailed Afghans yesterday.

But New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark has declared the men are not terrorists.

Police last week formed a taskforce to investigate links between Afghan terrorist organisations and New Zealand."