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"Vindication does not happen often, but yesterday the head of Australia's Lucas Heights nuclear facility said a whistleblower was "absolutely correct" to raise serious safety concerns at the site. The comments from ANSTO chief Dr Adrian Paterson contrast with the treatment that 55-year-old reactor operator David Reid has received at the hands of management over the past 12 months. Mr Reid has been employed by the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) at the south Sydney facility for the past 28 years. "

A CONVOY of trucks transported nuclear waste from the Lucas Heights reactor to Port Kembla early on Monday morning. As usual, the operation took place in secrecy and under heavy security. It was the ninth shipment of used or spent nuclear fuel to leave Lucas Heights for overseas storage facilities since 1963. Normally, the shipment leaves through Port Botany but because of construction work at that location, went to Port Kembla on this occasion. The Illawarra Mercury reported that port sources had told of workers ``holding their breath'' as the small ship rolled towards the jetty as the first of eight containers was loaded.

"There are new calls for an independent audit into the Lucas Heights nuclear facility, with a whistleblower claiming staff are at risk from serious safety breaches. A suspended employee of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) facility in Sydney's south has gone public with claims a worker was exposed to a "massive" dose of radiation in a 2008 accident. David Reid was a health and safety officer at ANSTO's Radiopharmaceuticals and Industrials business, ARI, and says a vial of highly radioactive material was dropped, but wasn't reported for hours."

"A man who worked at Australia's only nuclear facility for 28 years has alleged that serious breaches of safety have occurred at the reactor. David Reid has come forward to tell Lateline that safety breaches at Lucas Heights in Sydney were being played down or ignored. He says in 2008 a vial of highly radioactive material was dropped, exposing one employee to a substantial dose of radiation. Mr Reid says the incident was not reported for hours. "

"A safety breach at Australia's Lucas Heights nuclear facility on Monday has exposed management and training flaws at Australia's nuclear science agency. The breach occurred at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization's (ANSTO) radio pharmaceutical production house in August 2008, when a worker dropped a vial containing a radioactive substance within a containment cell. ANSTO chief executive Adrian Paterson told a Senate estimates hearing in Canberra that two major investigations had looked into the incident. The organization's own safety team completed their inquiries in September 2009, and the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency finished its report last January"

"Work is due to commence soon on decommissioning obsolete nuclear facilities at the Lucas Heights Science and Technology Centre and the National Medical Cyclotron. Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, Senator Kim Carr said Government funding of $9.7 million in 2010-11 would ensure compliance with international best practice for the decommissioning of nuclear facilities. Obsolete facilities to be decommissioned "Australia takes its nuclear safety responsibilities extremely seriously," Senator Carr said, and this funding will help ensure the health and safety of the Australian community."

IT'S a nuclear battle that doesn't involve a blast or a mushroom cloud, but rather a wrinkle the size of a hair. Confused? So are the scientists at Australia's only nuclear reactor at Lucas Heights in Sydney's south. In theory, the $430 million Open Pool Australian Lightwater (OPAL) reactor, bought by the Australian government and installed in 2006, is an answer to the country's nuclear medicine needs.

A water leak at Australia's only nuclear reactor is unlikely to delay its full commissioning, the federal government's nuclear agency says. A spate of engineering problems has plagued the Lucas Heights research facility, in Sydney's south, since the reactor's commissioning process began in 2006.

The federal government says it has serious questions about ongoing repair costs at the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor in Sydney. Design flaws in the $400 million reactor have seen it shut down for a total of 11 months since it began operations at the end of 2006. The cost of repairs and loss productions is expected to run into millions.

There are renewed calls for the Federal Government to scrap its plans to build a nuclear waste dump in the Northern Territory. A new storage facility for radioactive waste could be built at the Lucas Heights research reactor in Sydney. The Federal Government is also considering three sites in the Northern Territory for a long-term waste dump.

THE public has the right to know full details of a secret shipment of nuclear waste due to be trucked through Sydney streets in the next four months, the Greens say. Five years' worth of spent nuclear fuel rods from the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor will be transported to the US by the middle of the year, the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation says. But the organisation refuses to reveal the date or route of the operation, except that it will take place in the "Sydney/ Illawarra region". "The shipment will be conducted under strict international and national security and safety standards," a spokeman said.

"Traditional land owners from the Northern Territory have visited Australia's only nuclear reactor to see what they are in for if a radioactive waste dump is built on their land. The owners come from Muckaty Station, 120 kilometres north of Tennant Creek. They say they want the waste site because it will provide jobs now and for generations to come - but they are insisting on a thorough environmental assessment."