Charges may be laid against a former Dunedin city councillor who admitted dropping of parcels of mildly radioactive material to politicians' offices yesterday.
Jeremy Belcher told the Otago Daily Times he was just trying to share information on an alternative energy source when he left the parcels at
the Dunedin offices of National MP Katherine Rich and the Green Party yesterday afternoon.
The packages, labelled "Uranium. Medium Radiation" sparked a three-hour evacuation of the second storey of Radio Otago House.
Police and the Fire Service, wearing protective clothing, inspected the scene, and cordons were put in place.
Two plastic bags were removed from the premises and the contents analysed, before the all-clear was given.
Mr Belcher, 45, admitted he delivered the packages, containing a vial of monazite sand (made of phosphates and containing rare earth metals, including elements thorium) and a piece of loveringite, an iron/titanium/uranium ore.
The Dunedin city councillor from 1998 to 2004 said he had brought the "information packs" with him from Australia, where he works as a geologist, to show politicians an alternative solution to New Zealand's power supply issues.
Thorium is a rare earth metal that can be used as fuel for nuclear power if it is bred into uranium-223.
A spokesman from the Green Party office said he was not concerned about the packages, because he knew the uranium ore had only low-level radiation.
The label on the package was "slightly misleading" and could have prompted others to have greater concerns.
Senior Sergeant Steve Aitken said police would speak to Mr Belcher today, and there was a possibility charges could be laid.
- NZPA
