Sydney reactor a ‘possible target’ for terrorists

POLICE believe a nuclear reactor in southern Sydney was a possible target of a Sydney-based Islamic terror cell, according to details of Australia’s biggest-ever counter-terror investigation released yesterday.

Police previously stopped and questioned three recently-arrested Sydney terror suspects near Australia’s only nuclear reactor in December last year, according to an alarming outline of police allegations.

The document, made public by Sydney’s Central Local Court, outlined the allegations against eight terror suspects arrested last week and charged with planning a terrorist attack.

Under the heading “Possible targets for terrorist attack,” the document said Mazen Touma, Mohammed Elomar and Abdul Rakib Hasan were stopped in a car by state police near the nuclear facility at Lucas Heights in December 2004.

The men had an off-road motorbike and told police they were in the semi-rural area to ride it.

When interviewed separately, however, all three men gave different versions of the day’s events, the document said.

Police later found the lock on one of the gates surrounding the nuclear complex “had recently been cut,” it said.

New South Wales state Premier Maurice Iemma sought to reassure the public that the reactor was safe.

“Lucas Heights is a Commonwealth facility but we have extensive plans in critical infrastructure protection which form part of our counterterrorism plans,” he told reporters.

The reactor is used for making radioactive material for medical uses and does not generate power. In 2000, ahead of the Sydney Olympics, detectives in New Zealand said they had uncovered a possible plot to attack the reactor, but there were never any arrests.

Touma, Elomar and Hasan were arrested along with 15 others in Sydney and Melbourne last week. Police allege they were part of an Australian-based terror network that was plotting to carry out a “catastrophic” attack.

The eight Sydney men have been charged with conspiring to manufacture explosives in preparation for a terrorist act, and the 10 Melbourne men are accused of being members of a terrorist organisation.

All 18 suspects face a maximum of life imprisonment if convicted.

The police document said members of the group “have sourced or attempted to source materials (primarily sulphuric acid, acetone and peroxide) for the production of peroxide-based explosives.”

Meanwhile authorities in Brisbane ordered bus and train services to halt for a half hour yesterday after a series of phone threats.

Passengers were ordered off buses and trains but there was no sign of any attack on the network.

Queensland state political leader Premier Peter Beattie said the threats had to be taken seriously in case they were genuine.