Representatives of the Ngapa people, traditional owners of Muckaty Station in the Northern Territory, were taken on an extensive tour of ANSTO's facilities at Lucas Heights on Monday, 29 March.

The visitors travelled a total of 4,000 kilometres from Muckaty Station, 120 kilometres from Tennant Creek to Sydney. Their aim was to learn more about the operations of ANSTO, the work it does in the fields of nuclear science and technology, as well as understand the natural waste by-product generated with the use of nuclear technologies. 

As traditional owners of Muckaty Station, the Ngapa are considering the possibility of hosting Australia's first national nuclear waste facility.

Amy Lauder, an elder of the Ngapa clan, told media representatives accompanying the group that the visit reinforced her view that the proposed facility would be safe, and that she hoped funding for it would provide jobs, help her people and develop their cattle station. The Ngapa were welcomed to the site by local elder, Les Bursill, before touring the reactor and inspecting ANSTO's low-level waste stores.

Currently, nuclear waste is held at more than a hundred locations around Australia, including ANSTO and various medical institutions such as hospitals. These locations hold waste generated by a range of medical, industrial and research applications such as unwanted radioactive sources. This includes radioactive isotopes used to kill cancerous cells, sources inside irradiation machines that sterilise medical equipment and industrial gauges, such as those used for measuring the moisture content of soil.

In February the Federal Government introduced the National Radioactive Waste Management Bill 2010 to the Australian Parliament. A Senate Committee is currently examining the legislation.

The low-level and intermediate waste stored at ANSTO has been collected over decades of providing nuclear medicine services and medical research that has benefited millions of Australians. For more information, see our information paper on managing nuclear waste and the need for a new waste facility.