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| Actual image probably NSFW. View at your own risk. Don't come cryin' to us if you get fired. (She's a cheeky little wench, though...) |
Many rantburgers are pro-nuke as alternative power, so I post this story to remind you that though big accidents like Chernobyl are rare, small accidents including the release of radioactive material into the environment are common. Radiation causes cancer - even that from the sun - and the effects are cumulative, which means you should limit the amount you are exposed to. The less the better.
"It was not even a notifiable incident, but ANSTO did notify in any event. "They put out a press release on their website last Thursday and ABC radio ran a report of it last Thursday.
That's nice, they told us even when they didn't have to. They still released radioactive gases.
"So this is just deliberate scaremongering by Labor in relation to a medical research reactor that delivers radio-isotopes and radio pharmaceuticals for cancer patients across Australia."
we are currently having the nuke debate in Australia. It has been stated that for the cost of building 1 nuclear reactor we could build 9 cyclotrons: one in every capital city and more. These produce 98% of isotopes needed for cancer treatment, are cheaper to run, do not need decomissioning and the 2% that can't be made this way can be reliably imported.
Ms Bishop said she was not aware of any other incidents at the reactor in the past 12 months.
My memory is a little longer than Ms Bishop's and goes back more than a year. In the 1990s there were three separate incidents at Lucas Heights in which radioactive gases were released and one accident where a radioactive rod was dropped on the floor and shattered, causing staff to evacuate the area and in which three staff were exposed to radiation. This was back in the days when Helen Garnett was head of ANSTO and she was the official media apologist for them. She's now Chancellor of Charles Darwin University. Then there was another incident where radioactive waste was found dumped in barrels at the local Sutherland tip.
