MORE than 5000 tonnes of radioactive waste will be dug up from one of Sydney's wealthiest harbourside suburbs, trucked across the city and dumped near Penrith.
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Secret documents passed to The Sun-Herald show soil from a former uranium smelter in Hunters Hill, previously proven to be hazardous in tests by nuclear experts, has been reclassified as safe by the state government to be disposed of in landfill.
The new classification of ''restricted solid waste'' allows the government, which has dithered for decades about what to do with the radioactive site, to transport waste to the western suburbs.
Special sealed trucks will begin rolling across the city from early next year to dump waste at Kemps Creek, near Penrith.
SITA, the private owner of the Kemps Creek waste site, will be paid $3.5 million to take an estimated 5830 tonnes of radioactive waste, the documents show.
The Keneally government is then expected to sell each of the three contaminated blocks at 7, 9 and 11 Nelson Parade, Hunters Hill, for $3 million.
But the government knows it faces a major public backlash, particularly around Penrith.
Documents show that key government departments have already been briefed to expect worried locals to protest outside Kemps Creek waste facility and possibly try to stop trucks entering.
Penrith councillor Tanya Davies, the Liberal candidate for Mulgoa, said the area would not cop being ''Labor's dumping ground for Sydney's waste'' and planned to protest vigorously.
Opponents of the plan will argue that Kemps Creek cannot legally accept potentially hazardous waste. Documents, obtained under the Government Information (Public Access) Act, show that data compiled by the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation in 1987 was not considered in the latest audit.
At the time, 37 of 226 samples taken by ANSTO were found to exceed 100 becquerels a gram, the level considered hazardous, and that would require special disposal, which NSW does not have.
Worryingly for nearby residents, one sample taken from land on an occupied block in Nelson Parade was seven times the level considered hazardous.
There have been a number of reported cases of cancer on the street, with a couple struck down by leukaemia, according to a neighbour who spoke to The Sun-Herald.
People have lived alongside the site since 1916 when the uranium refinery owned by the Radium Hill Company closed down. It wasn't until 1978 that the government began to buy up the former smelter site over health fears.
The new study, undertaken by consultants Environ, used only 19 samples and averaged out the results, allowing the soil to be classified as restricted solid waste.
The documents show that despite agreeing to take the waste, SITA is concerned about any legal implications from taking hazardous waste. It has included a get-out clause in its contract.
''SITA agrees that it will hold and store non-approved waste material until: … (3) the customer is able to locate another disposal facility for the delivery, storage and disposal of the non-approved waste material,'' contract documents state.
Ms Davies said it was ludicrous that earlier tests showing dangerous radioactive levels were ruled out for being too old.
''Considering the time it takes for radioactivity to diminish it is absolutely laughable to say that tests done 20 years ago are out of date,'' she said.
The head of the State Property Authority, Simon Furness, who will oversee the Hunters Hill project, said SITA was fully capable of disposing of the waste.
''The material will be placed in specially designed cells and will pose no public health risk. There is no risk of further contamination to surrounding areas,'' he said.
Mr Furness said the public would be able to comment before planning approval was granted.
