A 1950s-era nuclear medicine lab in south-west Sydney should be replaced after a worker was exposed to radioactive material, an independent expert review has recommended.
The review, published this morning, said the Lucas Heights facility failed modern nuclear safety standards and had a culture of "make-do and mend".
An incident at the facility — known as building 23 — occurred in August last year, and was deemed the most serious in the world in 2017. It was the only incident at the time that was classified as a Level 3 event in the International Nuclear Event Scale.
The review said a technician had dropped a vial while trying to de-cap it, and his hands were contaminated through two pairs of gloves.
The worker suffered blisters and now faces a higher risk of developing cancer. Three other "near misses" at the same building occurred in the following months.
The facility is run by the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO), and its chief nuclear officer Hefin Griffiths said the lab continued to operate.
"At the moment it could not be shut down without ceasing production of nuclear medicine for domestic supply in Australia," Mr Griffiths said.
"While we recognise the building doesn't meet modern standards, we wouldn't operate a facility that posed an ongoing risk to staff members."
ANSTO apologised to the worker who was exposed to the radioactive material and will produce an "action plan" in 60 days, in response to the report's 85 recommendations.
The review team also identified a toxic culture within the Lucas Heights health businesses, despite a series of changes implemented in 2010 to improve safety and product quality.
"There is a perception amongst many that recent events have served to reverse many of these improvements such that the culture and morale within ANSTO Health, in particular, has significantly deteriorated," the review said.
A perception of widespread bullying also emerged, with about one in five ANSTO staff interviewed saying they had "experienced bullying" over a six-month period.
Staff also reported that executives were not sufficiently aware of related difficulties they experienced.
Building 23 operates a nuclear medicine production facility and is responsible for distributing "finished" products, used predominantly to diagnoses heart, lung, cancer and skeletal diseases across Australia.
Although building 23 has had five major upgrades in the past 30 years, the review found its safety standards lacked the modern engineering controls to sustain production safely.
