Lucas Heights reactor shutdown: mum's the word
BY JIM GREEN
SYDNEY — Information leaked by technicians working for the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) has revealed that Australian medical science could get along perfectly well without the HIFAR nuclear research reactor in the Sydney suburb of Lucas Heights.
ANSTO management has long claimed that nuclear isotopes for medical use are a prime reason why Australia needs a nuclear reactor. The HIFAR nuclear research reactor in the Sydney suburb of Lucas Heights was shut down for maintenance for 12 weeks from March until May 1.
Several ANSTO staff members, describing themselves as "Staff Representing Truth in Science", wrote to a Sutherland shire councillor on March 3 stating, "ANSTO's isotope production has suffered no dislocation as a result of the shutdown, since bulk supplies of isotopes are purchased from the big international players in Canada and South Africa".
The quantity and range of imported isotopes was increased while the reactor was out of commission, to compensate for medical isotopes manufactured at Lucas Heights.
But even basic questions put to ANSTO — such as the range of isotopes imported during the reactor shutdown — were not answered, ostensibly because of commercial confidentiality. Overseas radiopharmaceutical suppliers, and the Australian and New Zealand Society for Nuclear Medicine, also failed to respond to questions.
ANSTO claims that international air flights are too unreliable for isotope supply to Australia's hospitals. However research conducted for the Sutherland Shire Council during the reactor shutdown revealed that of 336 Qantas flights arriving at Sydney airport from overseas, 97.3% arrived ahead of schedule, on time or less than two hours behind schedule.
Helen Garnett, ANSTO's executive director, says it is "morally dubious" to rely on imported isotopes and thus expect overseas countries to accept the impacts associated with reactor operations.
Yet ANSTO routinely imports isotopes and appears to have come to terms with the moral dilemma perfectly well. If the HIFAR reactor was to close without replacement, reliance on imported isotopes even could be reduced by developing non-reactor methods to produce key isotopes, something which ANSTO has never sought to do.
ANSTO's own data indicates that of all the nuclear medicine procedures carried out in Australia, at least 98% (99.7% by one calculation) use isotopes which can be imported and/or produced using cyclotrons. A spokesperson from a radiopharmaceutical company said that many nuclear medicine specialists were not even aware of the HIFAR reactor shutdown.
ANSTO "Staff Representing Truth in Science", commenting on an isotope used to alleviate the pain associated with bone cancer, said, "We understand that ANSTO has been obtaining supplies of samarium-153 from South Africa since the HIFAR shut down in February with no dislocation. It is further understood that ANSTO has stopped its importation of samarium-153 from South Africa to 'prove' the need for a new reactor. If this is the case it would appear that ANSTO is orchestrating its own circumstances to ensure a reactor."
ANSTO management was asked to provide independently verifiable information on the allegation. A May 9 letter from ANSTO's director of government and public affairs, John Rolland, said that ANSTO "trialled" some imports of samarium-153 but discontinued them because of commercial and product quality factors, claims which cannot be tested.
Data supplied by a radiopharmaceutical company indicates that ANSTO is charging approximately $200 less than the Medicare rebate for each patient-dose of samarium-153, thus creating a direct financial incentive for doctors and nuclear medicine clinics to use samarium-153 in preference to equally effective or superior alternative products from overseas suppliers. ANSTO's generosity comes at taxpayers' expense.