OPAL: a boon to the NSW scientific community

On 20 April 2007, Prime Minister John Howard launched OPAL (Open Pool Australian Light Water Reactor), Australia’s new $400 million, 20-megawatt pool-type nuclear research reactor at Lucas Heights in South Sydney. Operated by the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO), OPAL has already attracted world-class scientific researchers and will be a boon to the NSW science community. It also enables Australian scientists to access world-class facilities while remaining based in the state.

OPAL is Australia’s largest single scientific investment and will secure Australia’s nuclear medicine supply for the next 40 years. It has the capacity to produce four times more radioisotopes for nuclear medicine than Australia’s first reactor, HIFAR (High Flux Australian Reactor). The isotopes produced in the world-class reactor will be used in more than 80% of diagnostic nuclear medicine procedures (about 470,000 procedures) in Australia every year, and enhance ANSTO’s capability for new nuclear medicine research.

An area of active investigation at ANSTO is a new class of radiotracers based on iodine-123 and fluorine-18 that can be used to image neurodegenerative diseases, such as dementia, and Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. Using nuclear imaging to map any unusual activity, doctors may be able to pick up early signs of degeneration among the neurons before any clinical symptoms emerge.

The radiotracers may also be useful in detecting inflammatory disease, cancer and the underlying patterns in brain structure and function that manifest themselves in disorders such as Alzheimer’s, epilepsy, depression and schizophrenia.

Other areas of research with medical applications include the investigation of potential new therapies based on novel radiopharmaceuticals and the use of radiotracers to better understand key biological interactions, such as the interaction between a cell and an antibody at a molecular level.

Through support for university projects including scholarships, the Australian Institute of Nuclear Science and Engineering will facilitate access to OPAL for students from the eleven NSW-based universities who are AINSE members.