Nuclear material found in Sydney apartment building

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Investigations are continuing into the discovery of radioactive material at a home in Sydney’s south.  Reporter Alison Xiao has the details from Arncliffe, near Sydney airport.

Transcript

00:00 Residents on this suburban Sydney street were confused and stunned yesterday morning when

00:07 they woke to a full-scale emergency operation.

00:10 Australian Border Force officials and HAZMAT crews from Fire and Rescue NSW descended on

00:15 this apartment building here on Kelsey Street in Arncliffe in Sydney's south.

00:20 They found low levels of radioactive isotopes inside an apartment unit.

00:26 Emergency operation specialists from the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation

00:30 were called in to help and they set up a 10-metre exclusion zone around the property.

00:36 Many neighbours say they were bewildered by this situation.

00:39 Many were forced to evacuate their homes and they were allowed to return back yesterday

00:43 evening.

00:44 This is a little bit of what some neighbours had to say.

00:47 My mum was driving me to school and I just looked to my right and I would see roughly

00:52 about six to seven ambulances, ten fire trucks and like two federal police cars and men in

00:59 HAZMAT suits and other German Shepherd dogs with the police.

01:05 No idea, no one told me nothing except the fire brigade.

01:07 Well as a concerned resident then yes I would certainly like to get some more answers and

01:12 find out where it actually came from, who supplied it, why did they have it.

01:17 You know that's the scariest thing of all, knowing that it's in your back door and no

01:21 one tells you anything.

01:22 Authorities were taking this situation very seriously.

01:25 Three people were taken to hospital as a precaution and testing confirmed that there was no evidence

01:31 of exposure.

01:32 Fire and Rescue NSW say that there was testing done on the substances that were found and

01:39 they said that the material was in sealed and effective containers and that there was

01:43 no evidence of any radiation escaping.

01:47 Now a man was taken away for questioning by Australian Border Force officials and the

01:52 ABC understands that he works at Sydney Airport.

01:56 It's not yet known exactly how much radioactive material was found inside this home or what

02:01 the intended purpose was.

02:03 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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