A quantity of radioactive waste is being shipped back to Australia and will be stored at a temporary building next to the nation’s only nuclear reactor, in the south of the New South Wales capital, Sydney.
About 13 cubic metres of the waste, enough to fill one third of a shipping container, will be returned to Australia by 2015 and stored for five years at the Lucas Heights nuclear facility until a long-term solution can be found.
The waste, which will remain toxic for centuries, was generated in Australia through the production of nuclear medicine and during scientific research.
It was taken to France for reprocessing but will be returned under an Australian-Franco government agreement.
“Most people would be really surprised at how small the volume of the waste actually is,” Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) CEO Dr Adi Paterson said in a statement.
“The store would hold around 13.2 cubic metres of waste from spent fuel, equal to a third of one shipping container, from the old HIFAR reactor at Lucas Heights,” Dr Paterson said.
He said the waste will be moved to an as yet to be built National Radioactive Waste Management Facility by 2020.
The Australian newspaper reported the waste would be shipped from France in a custom-built 6.5-metre cask with walls more than 20 centimetres thick.
ANSTO said it would formally apply for a licence to create the new storage building at Lucas Heights, with work already underway on its design.
Lucas Heights is located in the Sutherland Shire, about 20 kilometres southwest of Sydney’s CBD.
