FOR PRESS :

INSTALLATION OF FIRST AUSTRALIAN-PRODUCEDÂ·   RADIOACTIVE COBALT TELETHERAPY SOURCE FROM  LUCAS HEIGHTS AT ST. V I N O R l F s  HOSPITAL.

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

The first Australian-produced radioactive cohalt

teletherapy source from Lucas Heights is being installed in

St. Vincent’s Hospital this week.

This was announced "by the Minister for National

Development, Senator W.H. Spooner.

The cohalt had taken sixteen months of irradiation in the

Atomic Energy Commission’s reactor HIFAR to bring it to the

required level of radioactivity, Senator Spooner said. Small

discs of cobalt metal, each about the size of sixpence, had been

exposed to intense neutron irradiation inside the reactor. As

a result, the cobalt become highly radioactive. It gave off .

gamma rays (similar to x-rays) now widely used in the treatment

of deep seated cancer.

The discs withdrawn from the reactor had to be handled by

remote control behind concrete and lead-glass shielding, as a

protection.against radiation. Eight of these discs were sealed

inside two stainless steel containers - one within the other.

The complete radiation source was about one inch long and

had a radioactive strength of about 2,000 curies. '  ,

A lead container weighing two tons was required to carry

the cobalt to St. Vincent’s. There it would be transferred by

remote handling into the hospital Theratron (the equipment

which enables.a controlled beam of radiation to be directed to

the patient).

Australian requirements had previously been supplied from  Canada, Senator Spooner said, but locally produced radioactive  cobalt sources would cost Australian hospitals less than the  imported material. There was a big demand throughout the world  for cobalt 60, and the Commission’s reactor. HIFAR at Lucas  Heights was one of the relatively few reactors in the world

capable of producing cobalt 60 in the required strength and  quantity. .

A survey by the Commission showed that it was likely to be  used in increasing quantities by Australian hospitalsÂ» Senator Spooner hoped that Australia would soon be producing  not only the radioactive cobalt sources, but also that  Australian industry would be producing teletherapy equipment

in which they were used. Already the Commission was  collaborating with a local company which had designed a  teletherapy unit in which several hospitals were .interested.

Cobalt 60, Senator Spooner added, was also coming into  widespread use for industrial purposes, including industrial  radiography, and sterilisation of materials. For example it  was used in a similar way to x-ray to check welds and castings

t.o disclose hidden flaws.

CANBERRA October 29. 1961 - P.M.

