Thursday 27 December 2007

ANSTO's OPAL reactor - up in January

After a 6 month shutdown to diagnose and correct fuel design issues, OPAL is expected to be operational again in January according to this Sydney Morning Herald report.

The article speaks of losses due to radiopharmaceutical production. It should be noted that these losses are due principally to Mo-99 production, the very same isotope responsible for the recent issues between the government of Canada, the Canadian regulator and AECL.


In the report, ANSTO predicts it will take another 3 months before radiopharmaceutical production will begin. Recall it took AECL about a week to resume production following their restart. ANSTO must still fully commission and receive proper regulatory approvals for their new radiopharmaceutical plant [also CNEA technology purchased through INVAP] - hence the additional time.

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