ANSTO responds to Lateline safety claims

ANSTO categorically rejects claims of safety problems at the radiopharmaceutical production facility at itsLucas Heights campus aired in a segment on ABC Television’s Lateline last night.

ANSTO seeks to continuously strengthen and improve its safety culture and encourages all staff to raise concerns about workplace safety1.

ANSTO employee, Mr David Reid made a false claim on Lateline of a ‘massive radiation dose’ to a worker as a result of a 2008 incident. A series of internal investigations by ANSTO andone by the independent nuclear safely regulator, ARPANSA, has clearly demonstrated this was not the case.

The Lateline program also made unsupported claims that an employee had an elevated white blood cell count as a result of this incident. This claim was not raised in the interview with ANSTO2. There is no known association between a high white blood-cell count and exposure to radiation.

The employee presented at the ANSTO Medical Centre 12 months after the incident. The professional medical advice he received was that his condition was related to an infection he picked up on an overseas holiday.

Mr Reid has worked as an operator at ANSTO and has no qualifications in radiation or medical science. His experience is as an elected occupational health and safety staff representative. His claims about employee exposure are incorrect.

The incident referred to occurred in August 2008. This occurred in the radiopharmaceutical production facility which is separate to the OPAL reactor. The incident was reported and investigated at the time. There were no radiation exposures to employees outside normal occupational levels.

Mr Reid’s first complaint occurred in April 2009. ARI3 management immediately initiated an investigation. Two weeks later Mr Reid raised the same complaint at an ANSTO safety meeting acknowledging the ARI investigation was underway. A subsequent investigation by ANSTO management followed.

In July 2009, Mr Reid was not satisfied and again raised concerns. This led to a major internal investigation ordered by the CEO. The investigation was completed in September and concluded there were no abnormal radiation exposures to staff. However, legitimate concerns about training and procedures in the medical isotope production facility were raised and have since been addressed.

In October 2009, ARPANSA initiated an investigation following an approach from Mr Reid. This was completed in January 2010 and substantially agreed with ANSTO’s four internal investigations. ARPANSA concluded there was no cover up, and no significant radiological event.

All of ARPANSA’s recommendations have been implemented or are substantially complete. The reports reflect the importance of attending to management issues that were identified in the investigations4.

As ANSTO has repeatedly noted, the public comments by Mr Reid in relation to worker dose and cover-up are not consistent with findings by the nuclear safety regulator ARPANSA and are rejected by ANSTO5.

ANSTO is disappointed that Mr Reid has not accepted the findings of five investigations including one by the independent nuclear safety regulator and that he continues to make allegations that no action has taken place.

Published: 06/05/2010

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