Discover

N U C L E A R - B A S E D S C I E N C E
B E N E F I T I N G A L L A U S T R A L I A N S
CONTENTS 6

3 a national research
organisation
ANSTO works across health, environmental science
and materials research to find solutions
to some of the biggest science questions.
4 research reactor
Neutrons are a reactor’s lifeblood. Follow their journey
from the nucleus of a uranium atom, to producing nuclear 14
medicine and facilitating cutting-edge scientific research.
6 research in focus
From medical applications to environmental science,
ANSTO research is making its mark worldwide.
12 a bright future
The Australian Synchrotron can reveal the inner structure of
everything from cancer cells to proteins. Particle accelerators
use different techniques to examine small samples.
4
14 going critical
In its almost 50-year lifetime, the main job of Australia’s first
nuclear research reactor was generating millions of doses of
radiopharmaceuticals used in nuclear medicine.
16 global exports
ANSTO’s nuclear medicine program meets
the needs of Australians and many more people
around the globe, with these numbers set to rise.
Publisher Karen Taylor
Editor Heather Catchpole
Art director Lucy Glover
12 Designer Alison Eaton
Production Editor Heather Curry
Sub-editors Keira Daley,
Rivqa Rafael
PO Box 38, Strawberry Hills
NSW, 2012, Australia
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This app was originally developed
showcase ANSTO’s achievements
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Thank you to the ANSTO scientists and research
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www.ansto.gov.au

2

a national
research
organisation
ANSTO
ANSTO works across health,
environmental science and materials
research to find solutions to some of
the biggest science questions.
E
VERYTHING, FROM OUR bodies to
the air we breathe, to the floor and walls
of our homes, is made up of atoms. It’s
not surprising then, that the science that
probes the atomic world, nuclear science,
is called on by researchers in almost every other
scientific field to provide the tools and techniques
to support a wide range of studies.
We are proudly Nuclear science and technology enables researchers
to go beyond the bounds of the smallest substances
one of Australia’s on the planet to see inside matter and learn how
things work from the inside out. Nuclear science and
largest public technology is helping to find answers to some of the
research big science questions – improving health outcomes,
increasing our understanding of the environment, and
organisations. identifying new opportunities for Australian industry.
INTRODUCTION
The Australian Nuclear Science and Technology
Organisation (ANSTO) is home to Australia’s
nuclear science and technical expertise. Like
the CSIRO, ANSTO is an organisation funded
by the Federal Government. While many
Australians may not be familiar with the
name ANSTO, we are proudly one of Australia’s
largest public research organisations and
a widely recognised international player in
high-end nuclear science and technology.
We operate much of our country’s landmark
science facilities including one of the world’s
most modern nuclear research reactors, OPAL,
a comprehensive suite of neutron beam instruments,
the Australian Synchrotron, the National Imaging
Facility Research Cyclotron and the Centre for
Accelerator Science. These facilities are used
by our own scientists and visiting scientists
from other local and international research
organisations and universities.
Importantly, ANSTO is helping to improve
our health with one in two Australians benefiting
from the nuclear medicines produced using the
OPAL research reactor when being treated for
serious illnesses such as heart disease and cancer.
3
SNAPSHOT

research
reactor
Words Gemma Black Illustrations Jamie Tufrey

If a reactor’s core is its heart, then neutrons are its lifeblood. Follow
their journey from the nucleus of a uranium atom, to producing
nuclear medicine and facilitating cutting-edge scientific research.

ANSTO
Platypus
beamlines
Leading from the reactor core
are four beamlines that guide
neutrons to the scientific
instruments in the adjacent
hall, up to 40 metres away.

Beamline

Translated into data, neutron

studying the molecular
structure of soft matter such
as proteins in membranes.
Neutrons have wavelengths
comparable to the inter-atomic
spacing within matter. So
ANSTO
in microscopic cracks in scattering is a powerful
aircraft components. tool for science.
Inside Platypus, neutrons are
precisely directed at a sample
– thin-film magnetics for
computing, or proteins on

they can reveal the position a cell’s surface, for example.

neutrons in
research
Platypus is a neutron
reflectometer, one of several
neutron-scattering instruments
at ANSTO, and is used for
and motions of atoms in
exquisite detail. They can
penetrate materials more
easily than electrons and
X-rays, and are particularly
useful in determining the
presence of hydrogen, for
example to locate water
Samples are placed on an
almost perfectly flat surface.
Scientists then measure the
intensity and the angles at
which the neutrons scatter
after hitting the sample to
gather information about
its molecular structure.

4
 nuclear fission
Neutrons striking the core of a uranium-235
(U-235) atom split the atom’s nucleus, releasing
two or three neutrons – a process called fission.
Some neutrons are guided down beamlines for
research; others are reflected back to the core
to maintain fission – a far from simple process.
As the reaction continues, the number of U-235
atoms drops, and eventually new fuel
rods are required.
Destabilised by an incoming neutron,
a uranium atom breaks into smaller
ANSTO

atoms, releasing neutrons and energy.

irradiation
facilities
Inside the reflector vessel, irradiation
‘targets’ such as silicon ingots are
placed alongside the reactor core,
where they pick up stray neutrons.
Silicon develops an atomic impurity
inside the reactor; this alters its
conductive properties for use in
electronics. Other irradiation targets
include uranium-target plates that
undergo fission and produce a useful
radioisotope called molybdenum-99,
crucial for nuclear medicine.

Beamline

the reactor core

OPAL’s reactor core comprises a 2.6 x 1.2 metre2 reflector vessel made of tough, corrosion-resistant
zirconium in a 13 metre-deep pool. Protected in a high-security building with an aircraft-proof cage,
the core has been compared in size to a bar fridge. Perhaps a more captivating analogy, however,
would be 200,000 incandescent light bulbs: that’s roughly the equivalent heat energy – cooled
by a constant flow of water – produced by the 16 fuel assemblies that comprise the reactor core,
each made up of 21 uranium plates. The fuel assemblies are surrounded by a reflector vessel
filled with ‘heavy’ water (deuterium oxide or 2H2O), which ‘reflects’ the neutrons back to the
uranium fuel source. Spent fuel from the reactor is sent to the U.S., where it is stored or
>>
reprocessed, and may eventually be reused.

5
RESEARCH IN FOCUS
NUCLEAR MEDICINE
scanning for diseases
Many Australians will require some sort of nuclear
medicine procedure in their lifetime. With global
supplies under threat, ANSTO is stepping up to deliver
radiopharmaceuticals not just locally, but also worldwide.
W
HEN JOHN Kearley,
a 48-year-old
Sydney-based
doctor, suffered
a heart attack in
mid-2012, his physician Louise Emmett
wanted to check how this episode
might affect Kearley’s future health.
As part of a routine ‘stress test’
to survey the damage caused by the
heart attack, Emmett, deputy director
of diagnostic imaging at St Vincent’s
Hospital, Sydney, arranged for Kearley
to be injected with technetium-99m.
This radioisotope is used in more than
80 per cent of the world’s 45 million
nuclear medicine procedures
every year.
The technetium-99m was
combined with a tracer
molecule called MIBI
(methoxyisobutylisonitrile),
which identifies healthy heart muscle
cells, revealing where damage to
Kearley’s heart tissue had occurred.
Gamma rays emitted as the
technetium-99m decayed in Kearley’s
bloodstream enabled Emmett to image
Kearley’s heart at rest. Kearley then
took a different medication to artificially
dilate his arteries, before jumping on
a treadmill to get his heart pumping
for another, comparative scan.
While CT (computed tomography)
scans can identify heart disease and
artery blockages, “it doesn’t always
mean it’s significant,” Emmett says.
The technetium-99m stress test helps
6
doctors determine if the blockage is
of concern – “whether it’s going to
put the patient at an increased risk
of another heart attack,” she adds.
After experiencing further chest
pains, Kearley returned to St Vincent’s
for another scan in early 2013.
“I kept getting weird and unexplained
pain in my chest. It’s really scary,” he
says. “The nuclear medicine scan had
tried to work out if there was lack of
blood flow to parts of my heart muscle
when I exercised – and there wasn’t.
This information has removed a lot
of my worries and helped me stay
positive after a heart attack.”
Nuclear medicines play a key
role in cancer therapy.
Radioisotopes – varieties of
radioactive elements – are used
widely in nuclear medicine, primarily
in diagnosing heart disease and
cancer (the extent of melanomas, for
example), two of the leading causes
of death in Australia, but also for
imaging the lungs, bones, brain or
kidneys. Nuclear medicines play
a key role in cancer therapy, targeting
thyroid cancers and cancers of the
bloodstream, among others.
Every year, ANSTO’s OPAL
research reactor provides about
500,000 technetium-99m nuclear
medicine doses to more than
ANSTO
250 hospitals and medical practices
around Australia. “It’s a fantastic
imaging agent,” Emmett says.
ANSTO
ANSTO IS building an export-scale
nuclear medicine facility at its
Lucas Heights campus, in response
to a looming global shortage of
molybdenum-99, the isotope used to
produce technetium-99m (see ‘Reactor-
to-patient delivery’). Such shortages
have occurred before, and could happen
again when older, existing reactors
– particularly the National Research
Universal Reactor in Ontario, Canada,
and the High Flux Reactor in the
Netherlands – are shut down in the
coming years. Worldwide, reactors
responsible for 70 per cent of the
world’s molybdenum-99 are due to be
shut down in the next few years.
Australia aims to step up as a
key global supplier, building a new
nuclear medicine production
plant in Sydney and a co-located
waste facility using a technology
called Synroc (synthetic rock), which
reduces waste volumes from nuclear
medicine byproducts by 99 per cent
compared with methods such as
cementation in cement-clay mixtures.
“Every so often, it gets to a crisis
point when there’s a global shutdown
and people have to wait for their
therapy and their diagnosis,” says
Emmett. “In terms of treating our
patients who are sick and really need
treatment and diagnosis – it’s
extremely important.”
In addition to technetium-99m,
ANSTO produces a range of other
nuclear medicines, including
 H E A LT H R E S E A R C H
fighting cancer
with starch

I
N THE 1990s, studies revealed

SPL
that the breakdown of starch
in the large intestine can
prevent bowel cancer. The
obvious next step was to try to
maximise this, so-called, resistant
starch in foods, particularly processed

1of aWreactor,
ithin the foods in which the healthy starch is
strips often lost.
uranium– To do this, ANSTO scientists are using
aluminium alloy
are bombarded
with neutrons.
Six per cent of
2 Mo-99
is ‘stuck’ to
aluminium oxide in
a technique called small-angle neutron
scattering (SANS) to study how starch
the resulting ANSTO-developed changes when it’s processed. This could
product is an Gentech generators, lead to new ways of processing the Neutron
element called and decays into common carbohydrate, found in bread, research
molybdenum-99 technetium-99m

ANSTO
biscuits and cereals. can reveal
(Mo-99). (Tc-99m). starch’s
“We want to maximise the amount molecular
of starch that’s left over,” explains Elliot structure.
Gilbert, who leads food science research
SPL

projects at ANSTO. Gilbert’s team uses ANSTO’s

SANS instrument, called Quokka, to follow how enzymes
break down the starch to see how readily it’s digested.
With a Rapid Visco Analyser, a modified commercial
instrument, his team has also been able to follow how
the starch structure changes during processing along
with its viscosity, like a “mini pilot-plant”, Gilbert
explains. Using Quokka, scientists study the structure
and behaviour of the starch on the molecular scale
before, during and after processing, as well as during
digestion, by firing neutrons at the starch and then
measuring the resulting angles of scattering.

3 Combined with
a tracer agent,
Tc-99m is injected into a
patient. The radioisotope
“You can then start modifying the processing
conditions to prevent the starch from being digested,”
4 Gamma cameras detect
the radiation emitted from Gilbert explains. “If you can delay the digestion until
it reaches the large intestine, then you maintain the
ANSTO

rapidly decays and does the Tc-99m, enabling doctors to

not harm the body. image the body in detail. cancer-preventative characteristics.” – Gemma Black

iodine-131, used to fight thyroid reactor-to-patient delivery

cancer, and samarium-153, used for
pain relief in patients with tumours
that have spread to the bone. Emmett
says the use of radiopharmaceuticals
is growing, with exciting implications.
“We’re now able to do lots of
experiments with different tracer
agents,” she says. “I think in 10 years,
we’re going to see hundreds of new
tracer agents. There’ll be a specific
breast cancer agent, a prostate cancer
agent, a melanoma agent, and they’ll
all be labelled to these radioactive
particles.” – Gemma Black
THE HALF-LIFE OF technetium-99m – the
time it takes for half the substance to decay
– is just six hours. While key for patient
safety, it’s impractical for transport. Instead,
its ‘parent’ isotope, called molybdenum-99,
with a half-life of 66 hours, is produced in
the OPAL reactor and transported to
hospitals in custom-built generators.
OPAL produces all of Australia’s supplies of
molybdenum-99. Inside the reactor, uranium–
aluminium alloy strips are bombarded with
neutrons, kickstarting the process of nuclear
fission. Molybdenum-99 comprises 6 per cent
of the resulting fragments on the alloy strips.
These fragments are separated and purified.
ANSTO-developed generators, branded
Gentech, contain the molybdenum-99
inside a lead pot, ‘stuck’ to a column of
aluminium-oxide powder. From here, the
radioisotopes are transported to nuclear
medicine centres around Australia.
At the hospital, molybdenum-99 is already
decaying into technetium-99m. Vials of saline
are passed through the generator, which
extracts technetium-99m from the column of
aluminium-oxide powder, leaving behind the
insoluble molybdenum-99. The technetium-
99m is combined with a tracer agent for use.

7
RESEARCH IN FOCUS
U N D E R S TA N D I N G O U R E N V I R O N M E N T
an element
of time
Earth scientists are using geology’s natural
radioactive ‘clocks’ to better understand
climate change and manage our environment.
W
E LIVE IN a radioactive
world. From bananas and
brazil nuts, to the nuclear
fusion reactor that is the Sun, the
radiation of energetic particles
– often at minute and therefore
harmless levels – occurs all around
us, all the time. That’s why the
Gamma Spectrometry Control Room,
where ANSTO scientists use gamma
spectrometry to unveil the history
of environmental changes, is built
tough. The least radioactive space
in Australia, it is made from special
low-radiation concrete to prevent
interference from naturally occurring
background radiation. The resulting
research provides key insights into
climate change – past and future.
Henk Heijnis, a senior scientist at
ANSTO’s Institute for Environmental
Research, leads the Isotopes in
Climate Change and Atmospheric
Systems project. His team looks for
certain radioisotopes – radioactive
elements with a specific number
of neutrons – that, thanks to their
known rates of decay, can reveal
the age of sediment cores. Then,
working with universities studying
other properties of the sediments,
they can begin to paint a picture of
a changing landscape over time.
“The sediment core is like a history
book of past environments,” Heijnis
explains. Researchers place 2.5 mm
slices of the core – the book’s ‘pages’ –
inside a petri dish, then into a gamma
8
spectrometer. The gamma radiation
emitted by the sample pinpoints
radioactive isotopes and uncovers
the story of what has happened
in the environment over time.
Elements such as lead-210, with
a half-life of 22 years, are useful to
study processes “in the past 120
years or so,” says Heijnis. “It can tell
us a great deal about what happened
in a region in the late 19th century
and the whole of the 20th century.”
Hydro-geochemist Karina Meredith,
from ANSTO’s Isotopes for Water
project, uses similar methods to
analyse Australia’s water supplies
and groundwater systems, such as the
Gnangara groundwater system, which
supplies up to 70 per cent of Perth’s
tap water. “Knowing the age of the
water is essential for understanding
how frequently water is being
replenished into the underground
rocks or aquifer system,” she explains.
The researchers focussed on
a short-lived radioisotope called
tritium – with a 12-year half-life
– to determine the age of ‘younger’
waters. Radiocarbon dating is used
to determine the age of older waters.
“We discovered an area of younger
waters, indicating groundwater
replenishment is occurring at a faster
rate than anticipated,” says Meredith.
Such studies have significant
implications in understanding the ANSTO scientists use
complexity of Australia’s rivers and radioactive isotopes
to determine how
groundwater systems. – Gemma Black
fast groundwater
ANSTO
is replenished.
 I N N OVAT I O N A N D I N D U S T RY
using your smarts
As with any big science research organisation, core
research can drive spin-off commercial success stories.
J
OHN WEST WAS at an event at
ANSTO when a new technique
to treat water using nanoscale
membrane technology caught his
interest. An entrepreneur with his
own business, he was immediately
intrigued, and started a discussion on
the research with ANSTO scientists.
The nanoparticulate membrane
bioreactor (NMB) treats wastewater
using bacteria and fungi on a special
porous membrane – a key to the
design’s efficiency.
“Most bioreactors have bacteria
submerged in water, so the issue is
a lack of oxygen, which makes them
very slow to operate,” West explains.
To counter this, membranes in the
NMB design are ‘seeded’ with bacteria
and fungi, and installed above ground,
promoting micro-organism growth as
they feed on the nutrients and toxins
in the water.
The invention stemmed from
broader ANSTO research into
applications for ‘sol-gel’, a matrix
of solid nanoparticles dispersed in
a liquid. Small-angle neutron scattering
techniques revealed how the matrix
of nanoparticles can be precisely
modified to meet specific needs.
iSTOCK
West secured a licence agreement
for the technology and founded the
company, BioGill Environmental Pty
Ltd, which, in 2012, purchased all the
intellectual property from ANSTO, with
a view to export products globally and
diverge into new market applications.
BioGills are now successfully
treating grey water, sewage and many
different industrial wastewater streams
such as effluents from breweries,
wineries, food manufacturing and
detergent plants.
Collaborating with industry and
commercialising technology is part
of ANSTO’s mandate to “add value
to the Australian economy and
enable job creation,” says Rosanne
Robinson, who manages business
development at ANSTO.
ANSTO’s research into sol-gel
chemistry also initiated a spin-off
subsidiary in 2007 called Ceramisphere
and the company was privatised in
2010. Ceramisphere uses nano-sized
ceramic (or silica) spheres to provide
encapsulation and controlled release
of active molecules for a range of
applications including pharmaceuticals
and anti-corrosion coatings.
– Gemma Black
9
RESEARCH IN FOCUS
U N D E R STA N D I N G AG E I N G
protein structure
and alzheimer’s
The tools traditionally used by physicists can help biologists
to decipher the processes of ageing and disease.
T
HOUSANDS OF Australians
live with Alzheimer’s disease
or dementia, with the number
expected to skyrocket as the population
ages, with 2 billion people expected to
be aged over 60 by 2050. An effective
treatment, let alone a cure, remains
elusive, but a key step forward could
lie in an improved understanding
of a single protein.
Called the translocator protein,
it is found in cells throughout
mammal tissue where it plays
several important roles,
including in stress regulation.
Its presence in the brain,
however, is a sign of
inflammation, which
can be caused by injury, or
neurodegenerative diseases
including Alzheimer’s and
multiple sclerosis.
Biophysicist Claire Hatty recently
completed her PhD with ANSTO
and the University of Sydney,
studying the translocator protein.
“We want to understand this
protein at the molecular level, so that
we can better understand its role in
neuro-inflammation,” she explains.
“If we can better understand what it
is doing and how it’s contributing to
that process, we might eventually be
able to create drugs that can modulate
and even reduce the inflammation,”
she adds. “It’s far-reaching, but it’s
what we’re hoping for.”
While the research is still in its early
stages, Hatty, with instrument scientist
Anton Le Brun from ANSTO, is using
the Platypus neutron reflectometer to
study the structure of the protein to
figure out why it “suddenly appears
when there’s neuro-inflammation”.
By firing neutrons at a synthetic cell
membrane embedded with the protein,
10
Biophysicist Claire Hatty studied
a brain protein that could provide
new insights for diagnosis and
better treatment of diseases,
such as multiple sclerosis and
iSTOCK
Alzheimer’s disease.
greener
electronics
ANSTO
GLOBALLY, ANSTO IS the leading
provider of silicon irradiation services
for the power electronics industry.
Irradiating silicon, a process
called neutron transmutation
doping (NTD), changes electronic
properties of silicon, making it
more conductive of electricity.
Silicon ingots ‘doped’ at ANSTO
are used to manufacture a variety
of devices in which quality is critical
such as those used in industries
including the automotive industry
for hybrid cars; transportation
An MRI scan (left) shows the structure of the brain, for high-speed trains and; energy
while a PET scan (right) reveals areas of inflammation.
and renewable ‘green’ energy
such as wind power.
the researchers are hoping to reveal To achieve higher power densities,
how it interacts with various binding size reduction, and allow the device
molecules, including specific drug to operate at higher temperatures,
molecules and tracing agents. both the device and the silicon
The protein could also be useful wafer used in its manufacture
as an imaging agent, with other should be of the highest quality.
researchers at ANSTO studying, Some of the highest quality silicon
in parallel, its potential use in brain wafers around the world are produced
scans – offering the possibility from NTD silicon ‘doped’ at ANSTO.
of earlier diagnosis for people “By 2050, it is predicted
with Alzheimer’s disease. At present, 40 per cent of the world’s energy
Alzheimer’s can only be diagnosed demand could be provided through
when symptoms, such as memory energy savings and much of these
loss, are serious – which may be savings will be from devices made
too late for any effective treatment. out of NTD silicon,” says Tatiana
“We’re using techniques that have Karma, who manages ANSTO’s
traditionally been used in physics,” silicon irradiation business.
Hatty says. “I find it interesting how “It gives us a chance to contribute
we can apply them to biology.” to making our planet greener.”
– Gemma Black
 U N D E R STA N D I N G T H E E N V I RO N M E NT
an environmental legacy escalated in Tasmania’s west – showed

I
the biggest impact in reductions in
N 2002, Henk Heijnis, a senior Tasmania’s They studied a 7.5 cm sediment core vegetation, the researchers found.
scientist at ANSTO’s Institute for wilderness from a subalpine lake. The sample Heijnis says the results could
123RF

Environmental Research, went
on a field trip with colleagues to a
remote southwest corner of Tasmania.
They went up the Gordon River to a
landing site where initial works had been
undertaken for a dam – before protests
famously saw the project abandoned.
Aside from the odd bushwalker, those
1980s works and protests were the only
modern human interference the region
had ever seen. “We were thinking,
we won’t pick up any human signals,”
Heijnis says of the sediment core
research they were to undertake,
believing that the signals they would
find would be naturally driven –
produced by climate and rainfall.
areas seem
showed contamination with heavy
unspoiled, but
earlier human metals, including zinc, lead and copper,
activity has in excess of Australian and New Zealand
made these safety guidelines, and evidence of the
regions less
pristine than
surrounding area’s mineral prospecting
previously and associated history of logging.
thought. Using gamma spectrometry for
lead-210 analysis, the researchers
dated the sample to about 1811. They
linked the sediment layers to specific
periods in Tasmania’s history, such as
a reduction in vegetation around the
1860s, associated with elevations in
charcoal and trace metals due to tree
clearing by burning.
The period from the 1950s to
the 1970s – when open-cut mining
have ramifications for mine site
rehabilitation, suggesting the existing
focus on direct run-off from polluted
rivers should be supplemented with
heightened consideration of aerial
contamination by fine particles.
“So, the study was useful on many
levels and can inform our current
mining practices. It’s very difficult
to define a pristine area,” he says.
“Ecologists and biologists keep talking
about that, but I think with a little bit
of geochemistry knowledge – the stuff
we do – using nuclear techniques there
is no way to hide. We can certainly
confirm that some locations are not as
pristine as they seem.” – Gemma Black

I N D U ST RY & I N N OVAT I O N
Laboratory, and to immobilise
smart rock technology dangerous plutonium residues for

A
USTRALIA GENERATES
very little nuclear waste
compared to countries with
larger nuclear programs. So when
Australian geophysicist Ted Ringwood
came up with the most promising
method yet for securing high-level
nuclear waste back in 1978, while
working at the Australian National
University in Canberra, it was a case
the term Synroc, a portmanteau
of synthetic rock, and took his idea
to what was then the Australian
Atomic Energy Commission.
“Nature had shown him a way
to lock up radioactive waste,” says
ANSTO materials engineer Sam
Moricca, who has overseen the
transition of Ringwood’s idea to
a viable product over the past 25 years.
the UK National Nuclear Laboratory.
While the current favoured
technology for storing high-level waste
around the world is to dissolve it in
Australian
invention glass, Synroc has the ability to lock up
Synroc stores radioactive waste “thousands of times
nuclear waste better than glass,” says Moricca,
more safely “because it locks the radioactive
than existing
methods. element into the structure, as opposed
to just having it dissolved there.”
In 2010, ANSTO set up a subsidiary,
ANSTO

of a minor producer of nuclear waste
punching well above its weight.
Ringwood, who died in 1993, was
analysing rocks from Sri Lanka and
the Italian Dolomites when he noticed
they contained radioactive elements
such as thorium and uranium, as well
as their decay products. The rocks
had been exposed to the environment
and immersed in groundwater for
millions of years, without releasing
any dangerous radioactive material,
Ringwood discovered. He coined
Synroc stores nuclear waste in ANSTOsynroc, with a view to
a crystalline structure of minerals commercialising the technology.
based on those already found to ANSTO is building the first operational
lock up radioactive elements plant to process nuclear waste using
in rocks in nature. These are Synroc, as a demonstration facility
compressed in stainless-steel for the rest of the world.
canisters using argon gas, “People worldwide are sold on the
inside a 1200°C furnace. superior properties of Synroc to lock
ANSTO’s Synroc team has up radioactive waste,” says Moricca.
adapted the latter compression “Once we have our plant in operation,
method, called hot isostatic it will open the doors to many
pressing, to secure nuclear opportunities to treat waste around
waste for the Idaho National the world.” – Gemma Black

11
X- R AYS A N D I O N B E A M S

SYNCHROTRON

a bright future
T
HE AUSTRALIAN Synchrotron produces
intense light to reveal the inner structure Œ electron gun  linear
Generates electrons by heating accelerator
of everything from cancer cells to proteins
a matrix of tungsten, and accelerates In just 10 metres, electrons are
and works of art, and can image materials at accelerated to 99.99 per cent
the electrons to an energy of
nanoscales. It operates on similar principles the speed of light and an energy
90 kiloelectron volts (90,000
to the famous Large Hadron Collider, but with a focus of 100 megaelectron volts
electron volts, or eV). In the cathode
on producing extremely bright X-ray beams to reveal (100 million electron volts).
ray tubes of old fashioned televisions,
the molecular structure of materials, rather than the electrons are accelerated to about
fundamental forces of nature. Recent research 20,000–30,000 eV.
ranges from mapping the nutrient content
of rice grains, to releasing the first
3-D images of insulin in
the process of binding
to cells. Here’s
how it works.

The
Australian
Synchrotron
has capabilities
far superior to
those of standard
laboratory instruments.

‘ end station
Within the mostly remotely operated
end stations, instruments collect
data from samples illuminated by the  storage ring
beamlines. The intense light generated
TONY GAY/DIGITAL IMAGE

Stored electrons are held in

by the synchrotron can be anything
from X-rays to infrared light, and can be
used in research from determining the
mechanics of cell death to exploring
the possibility of storing hydrogen in
nano-thin films of diamond.
 beamlines
Beamlines capture the
emitted X-rays, select specific
wavelengths, and focus them
onto a sample for research.
the 216 metre circumference
ring continuously for days,
with the electron current
‘topped up’ from the booster
ring every few seconds.

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 J. MILLER
TONY GAY/PHOTOSHELTER ACC E L E R ATO R S
fast
particles
Particle accelerators use different techniques to determine the age
At the Australian Synchrotron, scientists
study the structure of materials using and composition of tiny samples, making them key research tools
intense light beams generated
by electrons circulating in across a broad range of scientific disciplines.
the main accelerator
B
(storage ring).
Y FIRING CHARGED particles
called ions at a few per cent
of the speed of light at small
samples, scientists can detect a single
atom among a quadrillion and reveal
a sample’s elemental composition
and in some cases its age as well.
This is what goes on inside
ANSTO’s particle accelerators,
where applications range from
finding the source of air pollution
to uncovering evidence of covert
PAUL K ROBBINS
Ž booster ring
In half a second, an electron in the
booster ring completes more than
one million laps of the ring’s
130 metre circumference, and
is accelerated to an energy of
3 gigaelectron volts (3 billion
electron volts).
ANSTO’s ANTARES
accelerator creates
high-energy ion beams ideal
for dating small methane
samples, for example.
uranium enrichment for the
International Atomic Energy Agency.
Ion-beam analysis is one of two key
Scientists use capabilities of ANSTO’s four particle
ANTARES accelerators, STAR, ANTARES, VEGA
for a variety and SIRIUS. When an ion hits atoms
of research
applications, in a sample, it ‘excites’ electrons,
including, generating X-rays with energies
recently, characteristic of the individual
characterising elements in the sample. Looking at
air pollution
in Asia and these energies and their numbers,
Australia. scientists can trace back the original
components of the sample.
Just two of the four accelerators that
make up the Centre for Accelerator
Science, STAR and ANTARES, accelerate
particles at different energies (up to
two and 10 million volts, respectively),
allowing a broad range of different
particles to be accelerated. This in
turn allows for a greater variety of
research applications. “We tailor
the ion beam to suit the problem,”
explains David Cohen, head of
accelerator science at ANSTO.
For example, to study the entire
elemental composition of an air
pollution sample, a light, energetic
ion beam would be accelerated to
pass right through the sample. On
the other hand, a scientist could study
just the first atomic layer of a sample
using a heavier, slower, less energetic
ion beam. – Gemma Black
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 HISTORY
In its almost 50-year lifetime, the main
job of Australia’s first nuclear research
reactor was generating millions of
doses of radiopharmaceuticals used
in nuclear medicine.
going
critical
T
“ HIS REACTOR HAS
saved a lot of lives,” says
education officer Marian
Jones in quiet awe as we
emerge from a fortified
airlock chamber into the dim interior
of the HIFAR, Australia’s first nuclear
reactor, now shut down. She’s referring
to nuclear medicine produced here
that benefited a generation of
Australians in its 49 years and
four days of operation.
The building that houses the
British-designed HIFAR, at Lucas
Heights in southern Sydney, stands
21 metres tall and wide – an impressive
white monolith with a domed roof.
The reactor, deep in the building’s
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Australia’s first
MAX DUPAIN/ANSTO
reactor, HIFAR, now
shut down, is today a
reminder of how far
nuclear research
has come since
the 1950s.
core, was kickstarted on 26 January As public opinion in the proceeding
1958 – a process called ‘going critical’. decades swung on the benefits
HIFAR was managed by and risks of nuclear energy, this
the Australian Atomic little-known reactor’s
Energy Commission job – with its modest
(AAEC) and officially HIFAR became a tool 7 kg fuel load and
opened in 1958 by crucial for medical 10-megawatt (MW)
Robert Menzies, thermal output – was
who was Prime Minister radiopharmaceuticals, purely nuclear medicine
at the time. It was
a momentous occasion in
and for scientific production and research.
HIFAR became a tool
the history of Australian research in general. crucial for medical
science. “We’re opening radiopharmaceuticals,
an establishment related to something and for scientific research in general.
so new in the world,” Menzies said at Accompanying Jones on our tour
the opening, “that it’s not so many is nuclear and mechanical engineer
years ago that nobody, non-scientific Pertti Sirkka, who started work at
at any rate, had thought of it.” HIFAR in May 1977. He points out

In the 20 years before closing in 2007, the HIFAR reactor produced most of Australia’s nuclear medicines
and operated on a charter that focussed on scientific research rather than nuclear power generation.
the decades of scuff marks at the
foot of the control room chair, left
by hundreds of successive engineers
overseeing operations in front of
an array of dials and switches.
In 1969, the Federal Government,
headed by John Gorton, proposed
construction of a 500 MW nuclear power
plant in Jervis Bay, south of Sydney.
Plans progressed as far as land clearing
and pouring concrete at the proposed
site. However, a new Prime Minister,
William McMahon, was opposed to the
idea and the project was abandoned by
mid 1971. It was the first and last time
a nuclear power plant was seriously
tabled as an option in Australia.
By the 1980s, with nuclear energy
off the agenda, parts of the AAEC split
to join with Australia’s other national
science agency, the CSIRO. The
remainder was renamed the Australian
Nuclear Science and Technology
Organisation, or ANSTO, in 1987, and
HEAD IN HERE
123RF
ANSTO
Robert Menzies, Australian Prime Minister at
the time, officially opened HIFAR in 1958.
30 January 2007 – just shy of its 50th
MAX DUPAIN/ANSTO
anniversary. “HIFAR had operated well
past all expectations,” Sirkka says.
HIFAR was replaced with a state-of-
the-art, Argentinian-designed 20 MW
research reactor called OPAL, which
went critical in August 2006 and
officially opened in April 2007.
“OPAL feels entirely different and
modern,” says Sirkka. “But engineering
challenges are generic, and hence no
began operating under a new charter less challenging or interesting than
that focussed on science research. on an old reactor design.”
For the next 20 years, HIFAR As HIFAR did, OPAL now produces
continued to produce most of the vital nuclear medicines for Australia
country’s nuclear medicines and and Australasia and irradiates almost
much of the world’s neutron-irradiated 30 per cent of the world’s silicon for
silicon – the heart of all computer high-power electronics for energy
chips, such as microprocessors – and infrastructure and transport. Beaming
facilitated important nuclear science neutrons to a hall of world-class
and technology research. neutron-scattering instruments,
Sirkka was working as operations it is also the hub of nuclear science
engineer at HIFAR when Senator in Australia, used by scientists from
Julie Bishop stood in Menzies’s place research institutions here and
to officially close the reactor on around the world. – Gemma Black
opal is a research reactor
HIFAR AND OPAL are designed to generate neutrons, and are vastly different to nuclear
power reactors. Power reactors have cores with hundreds of times more uranium fuel and
use the process of fission – the splitting of atomic parts – to create heat to drive energy
production. Research reactors are used by scientists to learn about the molecular structure
of materials using techniques such as neutron scattering. These techniques can address
issues from tackling climate change to finding energy-efficient power sources for the future.
>>
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SPECIAL REPORT
global
exports
ANSTO’s nuclear medicine program meets the needs
of Australians and many more people around the globe,
with these numbers set to rise.
T
OKYO. AN ANXIOUS
42-year-old woman faces
breast cancer surgery tomorrow.
She has just had a tiny amount of the
radioactive element technetium-99m
injected into her breast ahead of a scan
that will tell her surgeon which lymph
nodes to biopsy – thereby increasing
the effectiveness of her operation.
She doesn’t know it, but her scan
relied on ANSTO’s OPAL reactor in
Sydney, which was designed for nuclear
medicine and research. Radioactive
molybdenum-99 (which decays to make
technetium-99m), arrived just in time
to get through customs and be rushed
onto a Qantas flight to Tokyo.
On landing, it was rushed to a nuclear
medicine processing company, where
ANSTO’s molybdenum-99 exports bring in
more than $10 million each year to Australia.
it was incorporated into a ‘generator’
– a heavily shielded device about the
size of an esky – then couriered to
the hospital, where the minute dose
of technetium needed for her scan
was drawn off.
ANSTO has this process of sending
time-critical nuclear medicine supplies
across the globe down to a fine art,
regularly shipping molybdenum-99
to Asia and the USA.
“We can get product from Sydney
to Boston as efficiently as it can be
shipped there from Europe,” says
Shaun Jenkinson, ANSTO Nuclear
Business Group Executive.
With radioactive elements, time is
of the essence. Technetium-99m has
16
a half-life of just six hours, which
means half of it will have decayed
into something else in that time.
This is why it is shipped as its
precursor, molybdenum-99,
which has a half-life of 2.75 days.
ANSTO’s molybdenum-99 exports
bring in over $10 million each year
to Australia. This figure is set to
triple after 2016, when its new
$100 million nuclear medicine
processing facility starts up,
bringing with it 250 new jobs.
“This will allow us to provide about
25 per cent of the global volume of
molybdenum-99 and, with our joint
venture South African partners NTP,
supply about 50 per cent of the world
market,” Jenkinson says.
Most of the main reactors producing
nuclear medicines are fuelled by highly
enriched uranium (HEU) in the U-235
isotope, as well as HEU ‘target plates’
for making molybdenum-99. HEU
is also a critical component for
nuclear weapons. Hence, the use
of HEU is discouraged in accordance
with an international treaty on the
non-proliferation of nuclear weapons.
The OPAL reactor, however, is
technologically advanced in that it
uses low-enriched target plates when
making molybdenum-99 and runs on
low-enriched uranium fuel, which
cannot be diverted to weapons.
“We lead the way – being good
citizens of the world by supplying
ANSTO’s OPAL reactor
makes many of the world’s
medical scans possible.
ANSTO
a product that’s proliferation-proof,”
says Jenkinson.
In Australia, ANSTO is the major
supplier of technetium-99m in nuclear
medicine. “About 600,000 Australians
have nuclear medicine scans every
year,” says Professor Paul Roach of the
Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney.
Since only minute amounts are
needed for each scan – including bone,
cardiac, lung, thyroid and kidney
scans – the entire Australian market
uses just 60 ml of molybdenum-99
per week. But not all nations are
self-sufficient in this way.
“There have been real issues in the
USA when people have struggled to get
technetium because the old reactors
have been down for repair,” says Roach.
As North America’s older reactors
retire from service over the next
two years, ANSTO is well-placed to
increase its output, and take up the
challenge of providing the necessary
medical exports to a growing global
market. – Clare Pain
 HEAD IN HERE
Nuclear science and technology
benefiting all Australians
Environment

ANSTO researchers use nuclear techniques to study our environment,

Health

produce nuclear medicines to aid diagnosis of diseases such as cancer,

Solutions for industry

and support Australian industries including developing clean energy devices.

www.ansto.gov.au >>

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COSMOS 50 years of discovery
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