- Radioactive gases gases escaped after
an accident at Australia's only nuclear reactor, days after Prime Minister
John Howard announced his inquiry into nuclear power.
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- Secret emails made public by the Labor
Party today show that last Thursday various gases, including krypton, escaped
into the atmosphere at the Lucas Heights reactor in southern Sydney.
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- One staff member was forced to wash off
contamination from the leak, and had to undergo a full body examination
to ensure he was safe from radiation exposure.
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- The Government has played down the incident,
but Labor deputy leader Jenny Macklin accused it of deliberately trying
to hide the accident from the public.
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- She said the incident was just a forerunner
to what the country might face if nuclear power was ever allowed.
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- "The local community deserves to
be told what actually happened at the Lucas Heights reactor last Thursday,
and why the release of radioactive gases was not made public," she
said. "Accidents like this show that the community is right to be
concerned about the safety of nuclear reactors. "This accident is
a stark reminder that things can go wrong with nuclear reactors."
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- The Australian Nuclear Science and Technology
Organisation (ANSTO) said a pipe inside a radioactive hot cell had ruptured,
halting the production of an isotope used in medical procedures. "Only
one worker was in the vicinity of the incident, but after examination he
has been found not to have received any radiation dose," ANSTO spokesman
Craig Pierce said.
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- Science Minister Julie Bishop assured
Parliament no staff or community members had been injured in the accident.
"There has been no impact at all upon the health of workers at Lucas
Heights or indeed the surrounding community and that the matter is under
control," she said.
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- An email from Lucas Heights' chief of
operations Ron Cameron backed up Ms Bishop's assertions. "No radiation
alarms went off, so there was no significant dose rate anywhere in the
building," Mr Cameron wrote. "Although some small amounts of
contamination were found on the face of the hot cell, on the floor in front
of the hot cell and in the office."
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- Ms Bishop said Labor was scaremongering
in the face of a debate on nuclear energy in Australia. "This is just
a beat-up by Labor trying to deflect from the fact that we're having an
open debate on nuclear power," Ms Bishop said.
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- The Australian Conservation Foundation's
Don Henry said the accident was a reminder of the inherent risks of nuclear
energy.
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- "This pipe rupture is just the latest
in a pattern of accidents that have plagued every aspect of the nuclear
cycle around the world from uranium mining and enrichment to power generation,
right through to the long-term management and storage of radioactive waste,"
Mr Henry said.
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- An investigation into the cause of the
rupture was due to report in a couple of weeks.
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- The rupture occurred at a key stage in
the production process of medical isotopes used in nuclear medicine scans
of bones and organs.
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- Supply of medical isotopes to some hospitals
and nuclear medicine practices will be disrupted for the next week.
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- Michael Priceman, a spokesman for the
Sutherland Shire Environment Centre, later said the reactor had been scheduled
to undergo hot cell upgrades several months ago. "It was going to
cost quite a lot of money and it was postponed," he said. "If
this is, in fact, what caused the accident, then they are not doing the
right thing by their workers or by the community."
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- Mr Priceman called on ANSTO to come clean
about the nature of the contamination. "We are keen to know exactly
what has happened. If the government does not know all the details they
should find out and let locals and workers know."
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- http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,19471051-29280,00.html
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