• Senate Inquiry Findings May 2001

The cornerstone of the Australian government's nuclear ambitions is the operation of a nuclear research reactor at Lucas Heights in southern Sydney.

The present 10 megawatt HIFAR (High Flux Australian Reactor) went critical in January 1958 under the Menzies government. It was the height of the Cold War, and the reactor was primarily seen as giving Australia a 'place at the nuclear table' in international circles. It was also to be a center for the training of Australian nuclear scientists at a time when nuclear power and nuclear weapons were both under consideration for this country. It is presently run by ANSTO, the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation.

More than 40 years later, the aging facility is due for closure and the future of the reactor is in the balance. The government is committed to opening a new research reactor, twice the size of the old one, and the price tag - at this stage - is a cool half billion dollars. If it goes ahead it will be the most expensive science project in Australian history.

The local residents, Sutherland Shire Council, environmental groups, Greens and Democrats unequivocally oppose the new reactor, and the debate has grown more and more heated as time has passed.

Without any coherent waste management plan, in June 2000 the government awarded the contract to build the new reactor to Invap, an Argentinian nuclear technology company. In it's short history Invap has supplied reactors to Algeria, Iran and most recently has entered negotiations with the Zimbabwean strongman Dr Robert Mugabe. Invap has also been dragged into the Federal Court of Justice in Patagonia for allegedly conducting illegal tests with a prototype nuclear reactor. As these concerns have become public, the decision to award the construction contract to this company has put the Australian government on the defensive, creating yet another headache for planners of the new reactor.

The new reactor at Lucas Heights has been justified in terms of its scientific output, the national interest, the medical isotopes it produces, and to keep our influence in world nuclear affairs. None of these rationales survive close scrutiny when set against the risks of having a nuclear reactor running in a suburban area, producing intractable nuclear waste and acting as a centre for proliferation of nuclear technology elsewhere. The campaign to close the old reactor and cancel the replacement has gained a great deal of depth in the last few years, and remains one of the flashpoints of the struggle against the nuclear industry in Australia.

The National Nuclear Waste Dump
The Lucas Heights reactor has so far produced more than 1800 spent fuel rods, and no government on earth knows how to isolate this waste safely for the 250,000 years it is radiotoxic. Plans for the replacement reactor seem to hinge on forcing South Australians to accept the present and future waste from operations at Lucas Heights. No dump, no reactor. Read on...

"The construction of a new research reactor at Lucas Heights will build on Australia's life-saving nuclear medicine capabilities."
Former science minister Peter McGauran announces the decision to replace HIFAR

"The government decided to push the whole health line, and that included appealing to the emotion of people - the loss of life, the loss of children's lives .... So it was reduced to one point, and an emotional one at that. They never tried to argue the science of it, the rationality of it."
A 'senior government source' explains the government strategy to promote the reactor.

"(It is an) unfortunate state of affairs that dear old ANSTO, which lives off taxpayer's money, is feeding us all this propaganda and very little objective information. I thought governmental agencies are there to serve the public - not just to perpetuate themselves."
Nuclear engineer employed at ANSTO for over 25 years.

Lucas Heights Links

• Sydney People Against a New Nuclear Reactor (SPANNR)
• Jim Greens Lucas Heights archive
• SEA-US Lucas Heights page
• Greenpeace nuclear campaign
• Sutherland Shire
• ANSTO Website
• Australian Local Government Nuclear Free Zones & Toxic Industries Secretariat