FOR PRESS : 743

RADIOACTIVE GOID TO TPjiCB WATER  FLOW

Statement by the Minister for National Development,  The Hon. W.H. Spooner, M,M.

Scientists from the Australian Atomic Energy

Commission in Sydney are to pour a radioactive gold solution

in to Cockle Creek near Newcastle next week.

The radioactive gold will help the scientists to solve

the problem of what happens to effluent from the Sulphide

Corporation Works when it enters the creek, which flows into

Lake Macquarie. Â·

The Minister for National Development, Senator Spooner,

announcing this to-day said the project would be carried out by

scientists of the Commission's Advisory Service, which had been

set up to help industry in its use of isotopes.

Senator Spooner said the radioactivity in the gold

s o lution would die away a few minutes after entering the creek

to levels below that of the normal tolerances for drinking water.

The movements of the gold solution wouId be traced by

delicate recording instruments. -

The investigation is being made in preparation for the

establishment of a new proecess at the Sulphide Corporation Works

which wouId involve an increase in the intake of cooling water

from the creek. The information gained will be used as a basis

of comparison for future operations.

The techniques to be used by the scientists is known

as "radioisotope tracer technique" and is similar to that used in

1958 to study the movement of water from a power station

condenser in a cooling pond at Maitland, N.S.W.

CANBERRA

August 24. i960 - P.M.

