Australian authorities downplay conspiracy to blow up reactor.

According to a New Zealand newspaper report, the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor near Sydney was the target of a terrorist plot. Earlier this year, New Zealand police uncovered a possible plot to blow up a nuclear reactor in Sydney during next month’s Olympic Games, a New Zealand newspaper reported. Authorities arrested three suspects of Afghan descent and claim the suspects may have ties to wanted terrorist Osama bin Laden, the paper said. THE NEWS SET OFF shock waves in Sydney, but Australian officials said there was currently “no credible threat” to the small research reactor, which is located on the outskirts of the country’s largest city, and said they had no plans to shut it down. Police in the state of New South Wales, who have overall control of games security, confirmed that they were following New Zealand’s investigations into the raid. “The New South Wales police service is aware of an investigation conducted by New Zealand police into the activities of an organized group in New Zealand,” said a police spokesman who declined to be named. The threat is being treated seriously, the Sydney-based spokesman said. Sydney has a population of about 4.5 million, but it could swell by another million people during the Games.