Lucas Heights

+ Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney
4 Feb 2007

Sometime before Christmas I visited the Australian Government’s nuclear reactor at Lucas Heights south of Sydney.  I learnt a lot, starting from a low base.

There are no secrets about the activity at the plant, which is visited by thousands of individuals and hundreds of groups.

Naturally, most of us are apprehensive about nuclear reactors.  We run together radioactivity, atomic and hydrogen bombs, the sufferings of the Nagasaki and Hiroshima survivors and nuclear disasters as at Chernobyl in Ukraine.

On top of this the low level threat of terrorist attack remains simmering in the background, given some recent oxygen by the theft of seven rocket launchers.  Fortunately these rockets would be capable of little damage against the reactors concrete and steel protectors. 

Lucas Heights makes a health contribution to society comparable to that of one of our great capital city hospitals as well as its contributions to industry, agriculture and the environment.  It is a spectacular example of human benevolence as well as human intelligence and industry.

A few basic facts will provide the platform to justify these claims about a centre which has the most advanced nuclear capacity in the region.

None of the research work at Lucas Heights is used for weapons of war.  No nuclear waste is stored there and, this was a surprise to me, no electricity is produced for use in the wider community.

Later this year a major new reactor facility will be opened officially at Lucas Heights, which will be capable of supplying all of Australia’s radiopharmaceutical needs for nuclear medicine for the next forty years.  Designed to withstand earthquakes or the impact of large aircraft, the new OPAL reactor with its compact core of 16 fuel assemblies is an example of the latest and best design.

In 1915 William Bragg and his son Lawrence became Australia’s first winners of the Nobel Prize for physics and the Bragg Institute will work to maximise the scientific use of this new facility and increase partnerships with research organisations here and overseas.

While the neutrons produced by these processes are more effective than X-rays in testing e.g. large pieces of equipment such as aircraft engines, it is the health benefits for e.g. cancer patients, especially through diagnosis and even treatment which are most welcome. As radiopharmaceuticals decay quickly and so became ineffective, research has lengthened their life-span so that they might be transported across the continent.  Staff are proud of their contributions in health and in many other areas, ranging from sewage treatment to salinity and research on plants which absorb dangerous minerals from the soil.

There is some element of danger for the workers at Lucas Heights, who are constantly monitored for radioactivity, but safeguards are stringent, standards regularly upgraded and round-the–clock safety supervisors are on site.

The low levels of risk and danger are more than outweighed by the huge human benefits generated at Lucas Heights.