urg:::Earthquake fault line at Lucas Heights

[Len Kanaar - FoE Sydney]

Earthquake fault line at reactor

Bangkok Post

Australian nuclear authorities said yesterday that an earthquake 
fault line has been discovered at the site of a new nuclear reactor 
being built in suburban Sydney.

The fault was found by scientists during a routine examination at the 
reactor excavation site, said Don Macnab, director of the regulatory 
branch of the federal government's Australian Radiation Protection 
and Nuclear Safety Agency.

``We don't know what the age of it is. There is further work going on 
to determine what the significance of that anomaly is,'' Mr Macnab 
said.

No further details of the fault were available. Sydney has never been 
struck by a serious earthquake, but a strong 5.6 magnitude quake 
shook the city of Newcastle, 150km to the north, on Dec 28, 1989, 
causing widespread damage and killing 13 people.

And as recently as February this year a 3.8 magnitude quake hit 
Wollongong, only about 50km south of the reactor site and was felt in 
southern Sydney. No damage was reported.

The new A$300 million (6.9 billion baht) reactor was approved in 
April by the federal government, despite protests about safety from 
environmentalists and residents living nearby. The site is currently 
being excavated and foundations laid.

The reactor will produce radioactive material for use in medicine and 
research but will not generate power. It is being built near an aging 
reactor at Lucas Heights in southwest Sydney that will be 
decommissioned once the new reactor starts work in 2005.

Mr Macnab would not comment yesterday on whether another site may 
need to be found for the nuclear reactor until scientists had 
delivered their final report on the likely activity of the fault 
line. It wasn't clear when the report would be finished, but Mr 
Macnab said discovery of the fault was a worrying development.

``Naturally people are concerned about what the implications might 
be, but that's the reason for ... carrying out the investigation,'' 
Mr Macnab said. ``We will call on our own expertise and engage some 
expert consultants to assist us in determining what the implications 
will be.'' But environmentalists called on the Australian Nuclear 
Science and Technology Organisation, a federal government agency 
which is responsible for the Lucas Heights reactor, to rethink its 
construction plans.

``The reactor project has been troubled all along, whether it's from 
the perspective of need, or waste, or security risk or safety risk,'' 
said Stephen Campbell, Greenpeace Australia's nuclear campaigner.


=A9 Copyright The Post Publishing Public Co., Ltd. 2002