Australia to restart nuclear reactor
Updated
Australia's $US375 million nuclear reactor is about to be restarted.
The OPAL reactor at Sydney's Lucas Heights was shut down last year just months after its official opening, when uranium fuel plates started coming loose.
The nuclear regulator has approved a new fuel assembly design for the reactor core but has ordered regular testing over the next two years.
The shut-down has caused multi-million dollar revenue losses.
The Chief of Operations, Dr Ron Cameron, says the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation is now turning to insurers to recover the losses.
"One impact has been of course the loss of the ability to irradiate radio pharmaceuticals, the second impact has been the loss of an ability to do cutting edge instrumentation, that's not been able to be done," he said.
"And in addition we also irradiate other materials like silicon semiconductors and we haven been able to do that so we lost income in that area."
