THE head of Australia's nuclear energy agency has called on the owners of an internet satellite program to censor images of the country's only nuclear reactor.
Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation executive director Ian Smith said he would ask internet search engine Google to remove the Lucas Heights reactor from its Google Earth program. The online program combines satellite images with aerial photographs and maps to let users zoom in on almost any building in the world.
While Google Earth "censors" the White House with blocks of colour over the roof and the nearby Treasury Department and Executive Office buildings, anyone with a computer and web connection can use the free program to see aerial shots of sensitive Australian sites such as the Lucas Heights reactor, the secret US spy base at Pine Gap, outside Alice Springs, and Parliament House in Canberra.
The satellite image of the Lucas Heights facility, on a 70ha site 40km southwest of Sydney's CBD, clearly shows the layout of the buildings and carpark.
"We're going to ask Google to take it off," Dr Smith said.
"It doesn't stop somebody who's determined to get the information getting it, but having it on the internet just makes it so much more readily available. We don't want to provide any easy assistance to anyone who wants to interfere with the site."
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Dr Smith said the Lucas Heights facility was clearly visible from the road, or from commercial aircraft flying overhead and noted Google's image was about two years out of date.
"The question comes down to, if you put it on the internet, does it go to Pakistan or Afghanistan and make it easy for them?"
Despite the construction of a new reactor and a five-year, $36million security upgrade announced in last year's federal budget, Dr Smith admitted that trespassers could enter the site "if they really want to".
"There's a small area near the middle of the site which is quite secure, but the bulk of our site isn't all that secure," he said.
"We don't have the guarding or the hardware to stop someone from getting in to the site if they really wanted to."
Dr Smith said ANSTO liaised with intelligence agencies to assess threats and met global security standards for storing nuclear materials.
Frenchman Willie Brigitte was deported from Australia in 2003 over an alleged plot to bomb the Lucas Heights reactor, which uses small amounts of uranium to manufacture medicines and for scientific research.
A Google spokeswoman defended the technology, noting the images were six to 18 months old and not detailed enough to zoom in on people. "The same information is available to anyone who flies over or drives by a piece of property," she said.
DigitalGlobe, the US company which sold the Lucas Heights photos to Google, said it did not censor any of its images.
"Although we are very sensitive to the concerns voiced, we are not required to seek permission to image areas around the world," spokesman Chuck Herring said.
Mr Herring said US law banned his company from selling to individuals, organisations or nations - including Iran and Cuba - on the US's "denied party" list. "When we sell it to Google, how they disseminate it over the internet is really up to them," he said.
A spokesman for Attorney-General Philip Ruddock downplayed the security threat posed by web-based imaging. "Australian government security agencies are aware of such sites and the information available on them and factor them into their assessments of threat," he said.
source : http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,16183993-2,00.html
this google is showning everythign...my firend CMARII has made a google map of Great kurdisatn...(you can make maps by drawing borders and save the file so other ppl can use it he had posted it in the forum...it should have been moved to computer room it was cool I try to find it)
