A major driving factor behind the timing of the decommissioning project is the expertise of the HIFAR team, many of whom are approaching retirement. “It’ll be a fitting send-off for the decades spent working with such an iconic piece of Australia’s scientific and engineering history,” Wheeler added.
This will mark ANSTO’s second successful in-house research reactor decommissioning, following the dismantling of the Moata reactor in 2012, which operated for 24 years until 1995.