Update on building 23 at ANSTO

1st November, 2021

The Australian Government recently announced $30 million to design a new world-leading nuclear medicine manufacturing facility at ANSTO’s Lucas Heights campus, and replace and an ageing facility.

That ageing facility, Building 23, is an ANSTO nuclear medicine production facility, where nuclear medicine products are assembled, loaded, tested and distributed.

It was first built in the 1950s to undertake research into radioisotopes, and upgraded over time to assemble and distribute health products, including more than 12,000 doses of medicine per week.

Back in October 2018, ANSTO released a comprehensive Independent Review into Building 23 and related matters, which followed a direction from the nuclear regulator, ARPANSA.

The review included 85 recommendations in respect to Building 23 operations, to ANSTO, to ARPANSA and to the Federal Government more broadly.

Last week ARPANSA released a progress report on the implementation of the actions related to ANSTO, where the regulator has noted:

The majority of the recommendations have now been addressed and associated actions completed and validated. The remaining recommendations and associated actions are being progressed in line with agreed timeframes.

ARPANSA is generally satisfied with ANSTO’s actions to address the recommendations of the independent safety review and will continue to monitor the progress of the implementation of actions to ensure the highest level of protection is achieved.

ANSTO thanks the regulator for acknowledging our significant work to address the recommendations in the Independent Review and thereby make our operations safer.

We also warmly welcomed the recent $30 million commitment from the Australian Government to design a newer, safer, advanced manufacturing replacement for the ageing facility.

Comprehensive information on Building 23, the Independent Review and the circumstances leading up to it, is available at https://www.ansto.gov.au/independent-report-safety-of-building-2