Got null when invoke getAttribute("nohref") on an HTMLAreaElement under firefox

STEPS TO FOLLOW TO REPRODUCE THE PROBLEM :
1. open the following url with java console open:
http://sqeweb/jsn/users/fred/deployment_ws/fred/deployment_6_UR_int_ws/deployment/src/plugin/FunctionalTest/FunctionalTest/html/HTMLAreaElementTest2.html

EXPECTED VERSUS ACTUAL BEHAVIOR :
EXPECTED -
No exception is thrown. and "@@@@ all tests pass" should be printed in the console.
ACTUAL -
On firefox:
The following strings are printed:
#### attribte nohref is null
#### test fail
On IE:
works fine

REPRODUCIBILITY :
This bug can be reproduced always.

The applet source code is:
http://sqeweb/jsn/users/fred/deployment_ws/fred/deployment_6_UR_int_ws/deployment/src/plugin/FunctionalTest/FunctionalTest/src/HTMLAreaElementTest2.java

The pure javascript implementation is:
http://sqeweb/jsn/users/fred/deployment_ws/fred/deployment_6_UR_int_ws/deployment/src/plugin/FunctionalTest/FunctionalTest/html/HTMLAreaElementTest2Script.html