The improved facility, where radioactive drugs used to diagnose cancer will be produced, will be built at the site of Australia’s only nuclear reactor, in southern Sydney.
Hundreds of millions of dollars will be spent building a new radioactive medicine factory at the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor in Sydney, replacing an ageing and accident-prone facility.
“ANSTO’s [the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation] nuclear medicine precinct in Sydney will revolutionise the domestic production of nuclear medicines and improve the lives of thousands of Australians,” said Science Minister Ed Husic. “Building 23 was designed and built in the 1950s and is scheduled to reach its end of life by the end of the 2030s,” said Ian Martin, ANSTO’s general manager of nuclear medicine. “It [has] served Australia very well, I think. But it’s an ageing facility that this [new] facility will replace.”