Fed: US team could pose added terrorist risk Councillor

AAP General News (Australia)
08-27-2000
Fed: US team could pose added terrorist risk Councillor

SYDNEY, Aug 27 AAP - The United States Olympic team is staying across the Georges River
from the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor, adding to the risk of terrorist activity in the
area during the Games, a local councillor said today.

Sutherland Shire Councillor Genevieve Rankin said the easiest way to eliminate some
of the threat was for the federal government to close the reactor for two weeks during
the Games.

"The American team is staying at Bankstown, only across the river from the reactor,"

Ms Rankin said.

"Again it makes the area relevant to international terrorists."

Detectives in Auckland investigating an immigration racket stumbled across plans which
appeared to point to an attack on the Lucas Heights reactor by sympathisers of infamous
terrorist Osama Bin Laden.

Although New Zealand authorities appeared to foil the operation, the Australian government
has rejected calls by anti-nuclear campaigners and environmentalists to shut down the
reactor during the Olympics.

Residents have been invited to a council meeting tomorrow night to air their views
and to increase pressure on the federal government to shut the reactor during the Games.

Federal Health Minister Michael Wooldridge today said the reactor could not be closed
because it was needed to make vital cancer treatment.

But Ms Rankin said the reactor had shut twice this year, having no impact on the medical
community.

"It was closed for 12 weeks between February 8 and May this year for refurbishment
and nobody even knew, no-one in the medical community knew," she said.

"It's a joke, they do not need it for nuclear medicine.

"And it was shut for a week in August when the workers had a strike and again nobody knew."

Ms Rankin said residents were angry that authorities uncovered the terrorist plot in
March but had kept it secret rather than worrying about residents' safety.

AAP sal/md/de

KEYWORD: OLY TERRORIST RANKIN

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