Ever since the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington DC in 2010 and the follow up in Seoul, South Korea earlier this year, nuclear security has been top of the agenda for world leaders.
Australia has a strong presence in this arena, as exemplified by ANSTO’s recent hosting of a well-attended Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism (GICNT) activity here in Sydney. Known as Iron Koala, the exercise was organised by the GICNT Nuclear Forensic Working Group of which Australia is the Chair.
The purpose of the event was to increase awareness that there needs to be legislated, regulated and practiced information sharing between countries and professions, in order to successfully combat nuclear trafficking.
Iron Koala was hailed as extremely successful by the attendees and its timeliness was demonstrated by the fact that it attracted 79 delegates from 24 nations with strong participation from countries in our region.
Iron Koala participants came from many professions and included: governmental policy makers, law enforcement officers, nuclear regulators and nuclear forensics technical experts. This breadth of expertise allowed the participants to better understand each other’s requirements and language, and to forge new communication networks.
As well as hosting Iron Koala, ANSTO has a proud history of working in the nuclear arena to make the world a safer place.
Australia ranks as having the best nuclear materials security practices in the world, according to the Nuclear Materials Security Index.
ANSTO undertakes a number of important nuclear security and safeguards activities including being part of the IAEA Network of Analytical Laboratories and using ultra-sensitive tracing techniques to measure samples.
ANSTO also sets an important example to the rest of the world by operating the OPAL research reactor with Low-enriched Uranium, which is seen internationally as an important step to prevent nuclear proliferation.
Following Iron Koala, most of the visitors took part in a visit to ANSTO to visit OPAL and learn more about our work.