FOR PRESS : 3 7 %

ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT M E  IN AUSTRALIA  TO SAVE AUSTRALIAN USERS THOUSANDS OP  POUNDS " '

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

Electronic equipment made in Australia to designs developed at  Lucas Heights Atomic Energy establishment will save -ij-ustralian.  users thousands of pounds.

Details of the development were released to-day by the Minister  for National Development, Senator W.H. Spooner.

Senator Spooner said the Technical Physics Section at Lucas  Heights was studying the use of transistors in instruments used in  nuclear research and laboratories where radioactive materials were  handled.

The section had designed, as one of its first projects, .   a transistorised scaler, an instrument widely used in the measurement  of radioactivity. This scaler could be built for about one-third  of the cost of a comparable imported instrument.

The saving on an initial order alone for instruments to be used  in the Lucas Heights laboratories would cover the cost of developing  the scaler.

Senator Spooner said a firm near Lucas Heights - Industrial  Manufacturing Engineers Pty Ltd. at Sutherland - was making the  first batch of scalers under contract to the Australian Atomic  Energy Commission.

Senator Spooner said he was particularly pleased that a '   Sutherland firm had been able to gain the first contract to make the  scalers. It was a clear indication of the benefit the Commission’s  activities would bring locally, as well as nationally. -  Â·

The Commission was looking into the possibility of the scalers  and other equipment designed at Lucas Heights being made available  to factories, universities, and other institutions throughout  Australia.

Senator Spooner said several new buildings were under  construction at Lucas Heights to expand laboratory and workshop  accommodation. Contracts for three of these buildings totalled  iiiore than Â£600,000.

Ã¢ÂÂ¢. A  building to house the Technical Physics and Isotopes sections was scheduled for completion In about two months.  Contractors were Hutcherson Bros. Pty. Ltd.

Â·. The contract for a building to house the headquarters of the  Australian Institute of Neclear Science and Engineering and  Lucas Heights' staff canteen had been let to Taylor Woodrow  (Aust.) Pty.Ltd. This building should be completed early in

I960.

.. Hutcherson Bros, had been awarded the contract for the Engineering Building, which would provide laboratories and  workshops for the Engineering Services, Engineering Research  and Metallurgy Sections. '

SYDNEY

May 10. 1969

