Platforms

INTRODUCTION Platforms

Our infrastructure platforms provide nuclear research tools not available anywhere else in Australia. ANSTO operates a large proportion of Australia’s landmark and national research infrastructure. This multi-user, multi-disciplinary, multidecadal infrastructure places Australia at the forefront of innovation for the benefit of public health, industry and the environment.

ANSTO’s OPAL multi-purpose reactor, the world’s first research reactor to use only low enriched uranium fuel and target plates, commenced operations in 2006.

Since this time, OPAL has supplied billions of neutrons to our suite of neutron beam instruments for scientific research; produced over four million doses of nuclear medicines; and irradiated more than 280 tons of silicon used by the microelectronics industry for technologies such as hybrid cars and renewable energy sources.

Over the past 10 years ANSTO has increased the number of Australia’s neutron beam instruments to 14, making the Australian Centre for Neutron Scattering (ACNS) one of the best equipped facilities in the world.

Since the first neutron diffraction pattern from OPAL via the high-resolution powder diffractometer, Echidna, were received in December 2006, ANSTO’s neutron beam instruments have assisted with thousands of investigations.

In 2016, ANSTO became the official owner of the Australian Synchrotron. Its inclusion means ANSTO is now better placed to offer complementary research investigations using diverse beamlines and can commit to longer term research.

During the period, an investment of $38 million enabled ANSTO to add two new accelerators to complete Australia’s Centre for Accelerator Science (CAS). This facility offers an array of advanced ion beam analysis (IBA) and accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) capabilities for national and international users from academia, publicly funded research agencies, industry and government. In 2011, the $25 million National Imaging Facility Research Cyclotron for biomedical imaging located in the University of Sydney’s Brain and Mind Centre was officially opened. A joint investment of the Australian Government, ANSTO, the University of Sydney and the NSW Government, the facility comprises Australia’s most advanced radiolabelling equipment and provides access to the nearby biomedical imaging laboratories.

ANSTO has also established the National Deuteration Facility (NDF) which offers facilities and expertise in biological and chemical deuteration, which facilitates investigations using neutrons, nuclear magnetic resonance and spectroscopy.

The only one of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere, NDF has numerous applications from research into new pharmaceuticals and drug delivery systems, to energy and gas storage material research and the development of thin films for nanotechnology.

Opened in 2012, the state-of-the-art Environmental Radioactive Measurement Centre enables scientists to detect minute amounts of radioactive material that would normally be lost amongst background radiation in a conventional laboratory.

Research conducted at the Centre uses isotopic and nuclear techniques to trace the impacts of human activity on the environment.

A work horse of the Centre is the ITRAX XRF core scanner, which has measured and imaged more than a kilometre of environmental samples since it became operational in 2012.

In 2015 ANSTO opened a world-class $6 million Electron Microscopy Facility at its Lucas Heights campus. The purpose-built facility uses advanced architectural design features to allow ANSTO’s electron microscopes to operate at full performance capabilities by mitigating external influences that can detract from the quality and performance of highly-sensitive electron microscopy.

INNOVATION FOR INDUSTRY Innovation for industry

Delivering solutions to industry to ensure Australia’s economy remains strong and competing successfully in international markets is a key priority for ANSTO. From providing the expertise needed to better understand superconductivity, sodium-ion batteries and hydrogen storage for the energy industry to improving air safety and extending fatigue life of aircraft for the aerospace industry, ANSTO researchers are providing answers to some of our most pressing industrial questions.