Looking for something to do during the holiday period? Join in a free tour and check out Australia’s only nuclear reactor – OPAL.
School children and their parents are invited to come on a school holiday tour of the reactor and other exciting science facilities at ANSTO1 in Lucas Heights, on New Illawarra Road, southern Sydney.
Come and find out how radiation works and how radioactive waste is safely managed. Learn about climate change research using nuclear techniques to determine rainfall patterns and greenhouse gas levels going back many hundreds of thousands of years.
See the OPAL reactor which is used to produce nuclear medicines and to irradiate products such as silicon used in electronic equipment. The neutrons it produces are also used for research into structures (eg aeroplanes and turbines), obesity and plastics.
Learn about many other applications of nuclear science including:
- Reducing the need for pesticides by controlling fruit fly larvae population
- Irradiation of rubber tyres to increase toughness
- Using radioisotopes to detect when bottles of beer and other food and drink containers are filled to the correct level
- Smoke detectors which are powered by tiny low-powered radioisotopes
- Tracing air and water pollution and identifying its sources
- Determining the age of artefacts such as Ned Kelly’s armour and old bones
ANSTO manages a 70 hectare campus at Lucas Heights and with 1000 staff is Australia’s’ centre of nuclear excellence and innovation. As the primary supplier of nuclear medicines, ANSTO makes over half a million doses every year.