Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation

Last updated

Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation
ANSTO logo.svg
Agency overview
Formed1987 (1987)
Preceding agency
Jurisdiction Australian Government
Headquarters Lucas Heights, New South Wales, Australia
34°02′56″S150°58′30″E / 34.049°S 150.975°E / -34.049; 150.975
MottoScience. Ingenuity. Sustainability.
Employees1,000+
Minister responsible
Agency executives
Parent department Department of Industry, Science and Resources
Key document
  • Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation Act 1987 (Cth)
Website ansto.gov.au

The Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) is a statutory body of the Australian Government that is responsible for nuclear research and the production of radioisotopes for nuclear medicine. It was established in April 1987 to replace the former Australian Atomic Energy Commission (AAEC), which was founded in 1952.

Contents

Its headquarters and main research facilities are on the southern outskirts of Sydney in Lucas Heights, Sutherland Shire.

Purpose

The Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation Act 1987 (Cth) prescribes its general purpose.

Mission statement

Structure

ANSTO is governed by The Hon Dr Annabelle Bennett. [1] Penelope Dobson is the deputy chair. The CEO, Shaun Jenkinson, manages the organisation. [2]

ANSTO operates five research facilities:

  1. OPAL research reactor
  2. Centre for Accelerator Science
  3. Australian Centre for Neutron Scattering
  4. Cyclotron facility
  5. Australian Synchrotron

Major research instruments include:

ANSTO also manufactures radiopharmaceuticals and performs commercial work such as silicon doping by nuclear transmutation.

Nuclear reactors

ANSTO has two nuclear research reactors onsite: The High Flux Australian Reactor, or HIFAR, in operation from 1958 to 2007, and the Open-pool Australian lightwater reactor (OPAL) designed by the Argentine company INVAP. HIFAR was permanently shut down on 30 January 2007. The OPAL reactor came online in November 2006 and the facility was officially opened on 20 April 2007.

A third, smaller unit, being a 100 kW thermal Argonaut-class reactor named MOATA, was in operation between 1961 and 1995, before being decommissioned in 2009. The reactor was initially commissioned to train Australian nuclear scientists in the operation of HIFAR, but its envelope was later widened to include neutron imaging and activation analysis, soil analysis, and radioisotopic medical research.

Spent fuel from the reactors is transported to Port Kembla, then shipped to France for reprocessing. [7]

In 2017, ANSTO announced the creation of a NiMo-SiC alloy for use in molten salt reactors. [8]

See also

Related Research Articles

Echidnas are Australian egg-laying mammals also known as spiny anteaters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lucas Heights, New South Wales</span> Suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Lucas Heights is a suburb in southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is near to the Royal National Park.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Radiopharmacology</span> Pharmacologic study of radiated medical compounds

Radiopharmacology is radiochemistry applied to medicine and thus the pharmacology of radiopharmaceuticals. Radiopharmaceuticals are used in the field of nuclear medicine as radioactive tracers in medical imaging and in therapy for many diseases. Many radiopharmaceuticals use technetium-99m (Tc-99m) which has many useful properties as a gamma-emitting tracer nuclide. In the book Technetium a total of 31 different radiopharmaceuticals based on Tc-99m are listed for imaging and functional studies of the brain, myocardium, thyroid, lungs, liver, gallbladder, kidneys, skeleton, blood and tumors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Australian Atomic Energy Commission</span>

The Australian Atomic Energy Commission (AAEC) was a statutory body of the Australian Government devoted to nuclear science, engineering and research.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">High Flux Australian Reactor</span> Australias first nuclear reactor

The High Flux Australian Reactor (HIFAR) was Australia's first nuclear research reactor. It was built at the Australian Atomic Energy Commission (AAEC) research establishment at Lucas Heights, Sydney, New South Wales. The reactor was in operation between 1958 and 2007, when it was decommissioned and replaced with the multi-purpose Open-pool Australian lightwater reactor (OPAL), also in Lucas Heights.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Open-pool Australian lightwater reactor</span> Research nuclear reactor in Australia

The Open-pool Australian lightwater reactor (OPAL) is a 20 megawatt (MW) swimming pool nuclear research reactor. Officially opened in April 2007, it replaced the High Flux Australian Reactor as Australia's only nuclear reactor, and is located at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) Research Establishment in Lucas Heights, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney. Both OPAL and its predecessor have been known simply as the Lucas Heights reactor.

MOATA was a 100 kW thermal Argonaut class reactor built at the Australian Atomic Energy Commission Research Establishment at Lucas Heights, Sydney. MOATA went critical at 5:50am on 10 April 1961 and ended operations on 31 May 1995. MOATA was the first reactor to be decommissioned in Australia in 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bhabha Atomic Research Centre</span> Nuclear research facility in Mumbai, India

The Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) is India's premier nuclear research facility, headquartered in Trombay, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It was founded by Homi Jehangir Bhabha as the Atomic Energy Establishment, Trombay (AEET) in January 1954 as a multidisciplinary research program essential for India's nuclear program. It operates under the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), which is directly overseen by the Prime Minister of India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Research reactor</span> Nuclear device not intended for power or weapons

Research reactors are nuclear fission-based nuclear reactors that serve primarily as a neutron source. They are also called non-power reactors, in contrast to power reactors that are used for electricity production, heat generation, or maritime propulsion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ISIS Neutron and Muon Source</span> English physics research facility

The ISIS Neutron and Muon Source is a pulsed neutron and muon source, established 1984 at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory of the Science and Technology Facilities Council, on the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus in Oxfordshire, United Kingdom. It uses the techniques of muon spectroscopy and neutron scattering to probe the structure and dynamics of condensed matter on a microscopic scale ranging from the subatomic to the macromolecular.

A kowari is an Australasian marsupial.

The University of Missouri Research Reactor Center (MURR) is home to a tank-type nuclear research reactor that serves the University of Missouri in Columbia, United States. As of March 2012, the MURR is the highest-power university research reactor in the U.S. at 10 megawatt thermal output. The fuel is highly enriched uranium.

The Australian Centre for Neutron Scattering (ACNS), formerly the Bragg Institute, is a landmark neutron and X-ray scattering facility in Australia. It is located at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation's (ANSTO) Lucas Heights site, 40 km south-west of Sydney, in New South Wales, Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neutron research facility</span>

A neutron research facility is most commonly a big laboratory operating a large-scale neutron source that provides thermal neutrons to a suite of research instruments. The neutron source usually is a research reactor or a spallation source. In some cases, a smaller facility will provide high energy neutrons using existing neutron generator technologies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pakistan Atomic Research Reactor</span> Pair of research nuclear reactors in Nilore, Islamabad, Pakistan

The Pakistan Atomic Research Reactor or (PARR) are two nuclear research reactors and two other experimental neutron sources located in the PINSTECH Laboratory, Nilore, Islamabad, Pakistan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Soreq Applied Research Accelerator Facility</span>

The Soreq Applied Research Accelerator Facility (SARAF) is a superconducting radiofrequency linear accelerator and neutron source, located at the Soreq Nuclear Research Center in Yavne, Israel. Its highly configurable neutron spectrum and produced range of light radionuclides makes it suitable for a range of research topics that previously required a nuclear reactor, such as fusion reactor material studies, producing radionuclides and astrophysics research.

Shine Technologies is a private corporation based in Janesville, Wisconsin. The company applies nuclear fusion and advanced separation technologies across fields of critical need, including nondestructive testing, radiation hardening services for industrial and defense applications, and the production of radioisotopes, including n.c.a. lutetium-177 for cancer treatment.

Adrian "Adi" Paterson is a South African scientist and engineer best known for his work on Pebble Bed modular reactor research and development. He was CEO of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) from March 2009 till September 2020.

Klaus-Dieter Liss, German: Liß, is a German-Australian physicist working in the field of experimental X-ray and neutron scattering and their applications. Liss research is on in-situ and real-time experiments with synchrotron and neutron radiation for the characterization of thermo-mechanical processes in metals; the investigation of phase transformations; the evolution of microstructures; and the kinetics of defects. His experimental achievements are the development of the Materials oscilloscope and the realization of the X-ray photon storage.

Vanessa K. Peterson is a Neutron Instrument Scientist, at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO). She established an independent research program at ANSTO which specialised on improving understanding of energy systems and how they work. She manages the Echidna program, a high-resolution powder diffractometer, as well as Wombat - a high-intensity powder diffractometer. Peterson's expertise includes synchtron and laboratory x-ray techniques, as well as neutron powder diffraction, as well as single crystal x-ray diffraction.

References

  1. www.ansto.gov.au
  2. "Media Profile: Dr Adi Paterson, Chief Executive Officer" (PDF). Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 October 2013. Retrieved 20 January 2016.
  3. "Echidna – ANSTO". Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation. Retrieved 20 January 2016.
  4. "Wombat – ANSTO". Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation. Retrieved 20 January 2016.
  5. "Kowari – ANSTO". Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation. Retrieved 20 January 2016.
  6. "Platypus – ANSTO". Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation. Retrieved 20 January 2016.
  7. "Radioactive nuclear 'boomerang waste' moved out of Australia". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 29 July 2018. Retrieved 15 December 2020.
  8. "News | ANSTO".