ANSTO’s next bi-annual community discussion will be held on Tuesday 2 December at its Visitor Centre, New Illawarra Road, Lucas Heights at 6.00pm. The community will be shown a new video about radioactive waste management at ANSTO and will be presented with information about used fuel management and ANSTO’s nuclear medicine production.
“It is important that the community have the opportunity to know about what’s happening at ANSTO,” said
Andrew Humpherson, ANSTO’s General Manager, Government and Public Affairs. “ANSTO seeks to be open and transparent about its operations, so we regularly provide opportunities for the public to come and visit the site.
“At this community discussion, the focus will be on how we produce life-saving nuclear medicine, look after radioactive waste and what we do with reactor fuel once it has been used.
“The transportation of radioactive materials has an excellent safety record. Internationally, there have been over 7,000 shipments of used fuel and there’s never been an incident resulting in radioactivity release.
“Over 500,000 doses of nuclear medicine are produced annually at ANSTO, which assists in the diagnosis and treatment of a range of serious illnesses faced by Australian patients.
“There are many misconceptions about the nature of ANSTO and what we do, so we hope that this discussion will help alleviate any concerns and enlighten people about the products produced at ANSTO and the safe manner in which we manage our waste and used fuel.”
To start the discussion a presentation will be given by ANSTO’s Chief Executive Officer, Dr Ron Cameron, to outline the type of organisation ANSTO is and the types of research it carries out.
Following the video on radioactive waste management, there will be a presentation on how used fuel is managed by Lubi Dimitrovski, Waste Operations Manager. Finally, Dr Ron Weiner, Head of Radiopharmaceuticals Research Institute, will talk about the life-saving nuclear medicines produced at ANSTO.
The discussion will conclude with an opportunity to ask questions on any topic of interest.
Published: 20/11/2008