Report: Olympic Terrorists Targeted Reactor

Aug. 27, 2000 -- International Olympic Committee president Juan Antonio Samaranch said he remains confident about the safety of next month’s Olympics.

“I believe this will be a safe Olympics,” Samaranch said inan interview Saturday with Spanish state television following reports that New Zealand police had discovered a possible plot by Afghan refugees to blow up a nuclear research reactor in Sydney during the games.

Police detectives found a map of Sydney with the Lucas Heights Nuclear Reactor highlighted during raids on a suspected people-smuggling operation run by Afghani men in March, said Bill Bishop, the detective superintendent in Wellington, New Zealand.

The March raids were first reported in The New Zealand Herald Saturday morning.

“The map and other material … suggested to us they were morethan motorists,” Bishop said. “Other details gave us causefor concern.”

The group also had plans of detailed access and exit routes to the targeted reactor, he said.

Three men were arrested in March on charges of passport fraud and smuggling. A fourth man was arrested last week after further investigations. None of the men had been arrested for terrorist activities, Bishop said.

Authorities, Samaranch Not Worried

With the games scheduled to start Sept. 15, Australian officials were quick to say that there was no direct evidence of a terrorist threat.

They expressed confidence in the massive security operation, headed by the New South Wales state police and including Australian military forces and international intelligence services.

“We have been at pains to assure the Australian public, and visitors to Australia for the Games, that we have put in place the most well-rehearsed and practiced cooperative arrangements between all relevant authorities — law enforcement, intelligence, security and otherwise,” attorney general Daryl Williams said.

Samaranch also said he was not worried.

“I don’t have any fears, although of course I won’t be able to be completely calm until the last day of the Games,” Samaranch said, hours after news of the alleged plot broke.

“We should remember that since Munich in 1972 there hasn’tbeen a single important incident within Olympic installations.”

Bin Laden Connection Claimed

The Herald’s report said the New Zealand group was linked with Afghanistan-based terrorist Osama bin Laden, but there was no independent confirmation of the claim.

Bishop said the investigation is ongoing, and security will be tightened during the Olympics. “This group’s location in New Zealand gave us cause for concern,” Bishop said.

Jim Anderton, the deputy prime minister of New Zealand, played down the reports.

“If you look at the facts, some people have been charged under theImmigration Act for illegal entry in terms of an immigration situation,” Anderton said. “The police have not arrested anybody for any terroristact, or potential terrorist act. They collected a certain amount ofinformation which they sent on to the Australian authorities.

“If they had clear evidence of terrorist activity, then someone wouldhave been arrested, that’s the truth of it.”

New Zealand Foreign Minister Phil Goff also downplayed any terrorist threat, but he said authorities had to investigate the case fully.

”There is nothing that suggests there is a threat on the ground other than somebody had marked the reactor and access to it in a notebook,” Goff said. “When you get circumstantial evidence and the Olympic Games are only weeks away, you err on the side of caution.”

Reactor to Remain Open

The news jolted Sydney residents, but Australianauthorities said the risk of an attack was low.

The plant, located in the western Sydney suburb of Lucas Heights, will have upgraded security during the games. But because of the lack of a credible threat to the facility or to the Olympics, it will not be closed, Australia Science Minister Nick Minchin said.

Sydney residents near the reactor demanded the plant beimmediately shut down as Atlanta did with a similar nuclearfacility before the start of the 1996 Games. (See story below)

Milton Cockburn, a spokesman for the Sydney 2000 organizingcommittee, said security during the Sept. 15-Oct. 1 Olympics wasthe responsibility of the New South Wales police. He declined tomake any further comment.

New South Wales police confirmed that they were following New Zealand’s investigations into the raid.

“The New South Wales police service is aware of aninvestigation conducted by New Zealand police into the activitiesof an organized group in New Zealand,” said a police spokesman whodeclined to be named.

The threat is being treated seriously, the Sydney-basedspokesman said.

Atlanta Reactor Closed in 1996

There was no immediate reaction from U.S. officials.

A nuclear reactor in Atlanta was closed down during the 1996Olympics over concerns of possible terrorism.

Georgia Tech shut down the reactor on its campus before theOlympics and moved all of its nuclear fuel. A year after the Games,the university decided not to restart the reactor.

Sydney has a population of about 4.5 million which couldswell by another million people during the Games.

The 1950s-vintage nuclear reactor in Sydney is not a power plant. It isused for scientific and medical research and operated by theAustralian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization. It is alsomuch smaller than an electricity-generating nuclear reactor. Itproduces about 10 megawatts of thermal energy compared with 3,000megawatts by a typical electricity-generating reactor.

ABCNEWS Radio, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.