French Terror suspect admits to plot to blow up Australia's only nuclear reactor

Plot to blow up Lucas Heights

As you can guess , this was all over the news here tonight.

As Australian police head to Paris to interview French terror suspect Willie Brigitte, he has reportedly told investigators he was involved in a plot to blow up the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor.

At this point they are, apparently , not too sure......... but leaning towards yes. It's always comforting to see that the reasons behind it were

Brigitte reportedly told French investigators he chose Australia as a target because it was easier to strike than the United States

mulberry

What's your impression of the devastation that would be done to Sydney if Lucas Heights was "nuked"?

Originally posted by MaskedAvatar
mulberry

What's your impression of the devastation that would be done to Sydney if Lucas Heights was "nuked"?

These guys weren't looking to " nuke " a nuclear power plant. Otherwise it would mean they already had a nuclear weapon.

They thought about the possibility to attack the central, but in a conventional manner ( with a plane, C4....??? ).

U-P

Thanks! It's what I meant, I was kidding badly when I put the inverted commas around "nuked" as in Lucas Heights gets "nuked" by its own nuclear power plant.

Seriously - I know the area intimately and I was wondering what the upshot would be, a la Chernobyl or other examples.

If its a fairly modern facility to breach the containment
area
would take a huge focused charge............

it would depend on the type of attack what the consequences would be.

a large scale explosive attack (car/truck bomb in the right part of the building) would probably say goodbye to a large part of southern sydney for quite a while (imo)

a light aeroplane would do some damage but might not set of any nuclear type meltdown/reaction

a large passinger/cargo plane might cause similar fate to southern sydney as point 1.

not shure of what the other possibilities are but most would do a fair amount of damage

MA-

this is a link to the report of the 2001 Senate Enquiry on Lucas Heights

www.anawa.org.au...

as far as I can gather there is a 1.6km zone around the facility with populated suburbs after that.

IF blown up correctly the whole thing is a massive dirty bomb. There is a LOT of nuclear waste stores there at the moment.

ANSTO , the body that runs Lucas Heights , has this on the net , guidelines in case of an accident


ANSTO GUIDELINES


Dr Jim Green posted this analysis of the possible threat on the GReenpeace website here

www.greenpeace.org.au... detail.html?site_id=22&news_id=442

HE seems to sum it up well.

Cant seem to find a proper map of sydney with the reactor on it. From memory it's about 40 kms from the city centre. I dont live in Sydney so I cant help you there.

Daniel Hirsh , a US nuclear expert had this to say in 2000 about the impact of an accident at the reactor on Sydney itself.

www.greenpeace.org.au... detail.html?site_id=22&news_id=442

www.homestead.com...

this seems to giv a good synopsis on the problems with Lucas Heights.

[Edited on 11-11-2003 by mulberryblueshimmer]

thaks for the info, the only map i could find was on whereis.com and it only said where the facility was it didnt show any detail

It's basically on its own long stretch of road heading out west from Sutherland shire (south of Sydney) to Bankstown and Liverpool. There's a lot of reserve around there but I haven't been past it for some time and I imagine there would have been a lot more residential development. Wouldn't catch me living within 20 miles of theplace.

Ive just read up on that plant
If you live near it
you might want to MOVE......

Liverpool and the suburbs round there are easily within 20 kms and are very densly populated.

I can tell you that straight from the fact that my cousin lives out there , so if I need free accom in Sydney that's where i stay.

Originally posted by MaskedAvatar
U-P

Thanks! It's what I meant, I was kidding badly when I put the inverted commas around "nuked" as in Lucas Heights gets "nuked" by its own nuclear power plant.

Seriously - I know the area intimately and I was wondering what the upshot would be, a la Chernobyl or other examples.

I knew what you was meaning.

As for the Chernobyl scenario, it's still possible but I don't think it will happen. Western nuclear power plant haven't been designed as their russian counter part. Russian " RBK " nuclear reactor have all a problem ( especially the old ones ) that our don't have. Damn, I don't remember what's the problem with these Russian nuclear reactor. But I know our don't have it. So we can stay cool.

Warning of Lucas Heights attack
November 11, 2003

A SECRET study is believed to warn that four million people could be contaminated in the event of a successful terror attack on the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor, according to a magazine report.

click

seems that anyone within 80km (basically all of sydney) could be contaminated if an attack was succesfull.

that is way more that i wouldve thought.

i spose the right comditions would have to be inplace (i.e Winds etc)