Whistle-blower exposes Lucas Heights nuclear accidents
By Jim Green
An employee of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) has revealed information about a series of accidents at the nuclear reactor in the southern Sydney suburb of Lucas Heights.
The whistle-blower provided information to a journalist at the St George and Sutherland Shire Leader and to Sutherland Shire councillor and People Against a Nuclear Reactor convener Genevieve Rankin.
"Some very serious accidents have happened at ANSTO over the last few weeks", the whistle-blower's statement revealed. "The first accident [occurred] while retrieving a spent fuel rod from its mortuary hole in the waste management section.
The operators didn't realise that the rod was in a very poor condition. The rod fell off the retaining mechanism while being transported in its flask. As the operators opened the flask door, the spent fuel rod fell out of its shielded flask and onto the floor in front of them.
"These rods, although they have been stored for many years, are in very poor condition and are highly radioactive. The operators quickly lowered the transport flask onto the rod so that they were shielded from massive doses of radiation. I believe this happened a few weeks ago and they still do not know how they will ever retrieve the rod from the floor under the flask."
ANSTO released a statement acknowledging that the accident occurred on February 1. According to ANSTO, four staff members were exposed to radiation doses between 50-500 microsieverts — the upper figure is half the annual limit for members of the public.
On March 16, ANSTO confirmed that the spent fuel rod remains where it fell. ANSTO says it intends to design and build a device to grasp the rod and place it inside its flask.
Last year, a number of "air-tight" tubes containing spent fuel rods were breached by water and a number of fuel rods corroded as a result. Increased humidity levels suggested other tubes also contained water, and it was during the investigation of these tubes that the February 1 accident occurred.
When the revelations were made last year, ANSTO's executive director, Helen Garnett, said the fuel rods posed "no safety or environmental hazard". It is not known whether Garnett's comment was made in ignorance.
Former ANSTO scientist Murray Scott says, "The corrosion of old spent fuel HIFAR rods is a real concern. A few rods are already deemed unacceptable for reprocessing in the US."
If the US Department of Energy, or the French nuclear agency Cogema, refuse to take spent fuel from Lucas Heights, then domestic reprocessing becomes a more likely option. Garnett says Lucas Heights would be a "reasonable" place for a reprocessing plant.
Contamination
The whistle-blower described another accident which occurred in February and involved the processing of radioisotopes. "A large amount of radioactive gas was emitted from building 54 two weeks ago. I am told the filters were by-passed at the time, a mistake was made and radioactive gas was emitted into the atmosphere. The escape was that large that the monitors in the HIFAR nuclear reactor were set off. This distance would be about 500 metres.
"I am also led to believe that staff members working outside were contaminated. ANSTO have covered this incident up and have not even told the staff that this incident occurred. Many staff believe that a site emergency should have been declared."
Another accident was described: "A large amount of radioactive iodine was released into the atmosphere from ARI (ANSTO's radioisotope processing plant). Again ANSTO has covered up the incident."
Responding to these claims, ANSTO acknowledged that during three weeks in February there were two occasions when radiation releases above routine levels required its radioisotope processing plant to be shut down. One involved the release of xenon and krypton, and the other involved iodine.
ANSTO denies that the radiation releases posed a significant health hazard to employees or the public and refused to confirm or deny the claim that alarm systems in the reactor were triggered.
In a clumsy attempt to diffuse concern and anger about the accidents, ANSTO asserted: "None of the events was associated with the HIFAR research reactor." However, the fuel rods were originally used to fuel the reactor and the radioisotopes were produced in the reactor.
The accidents, and the cover-up, have occurred at a crucial point in the debate over the plan to replace the HIFAR nuclear reactor.
According to Rankin, "Local residents can't help wondering how many other accidents have been covered up over the years. ANSTO has clearly tried to suppress the information on the latest accidents during the assessment period for the new reactor.
"Environment minister Senator Robert Hill has decided to delay the announcement of the approval for the new reactor until the Monday after the NSW state election in order to minimise public comment on the issues during an election period."
"These incidents have been covered up by ANSTO as they are desperate to get the new reactor approved", said the whistle-blower. "These incidents would not go down well with the environmental impact statement being considered at the moment."
It is not just the federal government and ANSTO that are ducking for cover. The ALP also has some skeletons in the closet. Rankin quit the ALP last year after a letter from Gareth Evans, then deputy leader of the ALP, to the executive director of ANSTO was released under freedom of information provisions. The letter said the ALP's "opposition" to the construction of a new reactor at Lucas Heights was based on "the realities of politics in an election year, and in particular our need to win [the federal seat of] Hughes", rather than "objective safety-focused concerns".
The ALP's "opposition" to a new reactor appears to have evaporated since last year's federal election.
NSW Labor premier Bob Carr attempted to minimise the electoral fall-out from the accidents and cover-up. Carr said the ANSTO nuclear plant is on commonwealth land and that state powers to regulate ANSTO were removed in 1992. He failed to mention that it was his mates in Paul Keating's federal Labor government who passed the 1992 law making ANSTO immune from state environmental and public health regulations.
"None of the health department, the Sutherland Council or local schools were notified about the February accidents, even though council has an agreement with ANSTO that it would be notified of such accidents", Rankin reported.
ANSTO denies covering up the accidents, saying the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA) was notified. However, ANSTO was forced to concede that ARPANSA was non-existent at the time of the accident involving the fuel rod.
ARPANSA was created to improve regulatory arrangements for commonwealth nuclear activities. The executive director of ANSTO was appointed to the panel which interviewed candidates for the position of chief of ARPANSA.
ANSTO also says the government-appointed Safety Review Committee was notified of the accidents. But in another embarrassing backdown, ANSTO was forced to acknowledge that the committee was also non-existent at the time of the accidents! It was abolished last year as part of the restructuring of regulatory bodies.
Radioactive waste
ANSTO's plan to dump its radioactive waste on Aboriginal land in South Australia is proceeding. Despite fierce and overwhelming opposition from the Aboriginal groups living in the Billa Kalina region, test drilling could begin as early as April to find a site for the dump.
Opponents of the dump claim it is primarily designed to minimise opposition to the new reactor at Lucas Heights. ANSTO and the federal government have fudged the issue. For example, a bureaucrat from the Department of Industry, Science and Resources (DISR) contacted by Green Left Weekly scoffed at the suggestion that 90% or more of the waste to be dumped in the Billa Kalina region would originate from ANSTO. She admitted she did not know what the percentages would be, and that DISR is not responsible for the inventory of nuclear waste.
But we have it from the horse's mouth. Dr Des Levins, head of radioactive waste management at ANSTO, said at a March 10 meeting at Lucas Heights that the "major fraction" of the waste dumped at Billa Kalina will be from ANSTO.
On February 22, ANSTO signed contracts with the French agency Cogema for the reprocessing of spent fuel. ANSTO's earlier plan to send spent fuel to the Dounreay plant in Scotland fell through when the British government decided to close the plant.
At the March 10 meeting, John Mulcair, head of public relations at ANSTO, described Dounreay as an "old, broken down plant". The fact that ANSTO was prepared — in fact desperate — to ship its spent fuel to Dounreay confirms that environmental and public safety concerns do not figure in deliberations over radioactive waste management.
Not least among the concerns with the Billa Kalina dump is the possibility that the national dump could become an international dump. taking 75,000 tonnes of high-level nuclear waste from around the world.
In the first week of March, Pangea Resources, a company backed by the British government's nuclear agency BNFL, formally submitted a project proposal to the Australian government to build an international nuclear dump in SA or Western Australia.
Information on the Lucas Heights nuclear plant can be found at <http://www.sea-us.org.au>. Contact People Against a Nuclear Reactor on (02) 9545 3077 or write to PO Box 595, Sutherland, NSW 2232.
There will be a rally outside the front gates of ANSTO, New Illawarra Road, Lucas Heights, on April 11 at 11am.