When you operate Australia’s only licensed repository for low-level radioactive waste, there are a lot of “firsts”.

But at Sandy Ridge, earlier this year, we marked a “first” that was nothing short of a seminal moment in Australian radiological waste management history.

Tellus has just disposed of the first tranche of Disused Sealed Radioactive Sources (DSRS) in our near-surface repository, under the sealed air dome at Sandy Ridge.

A sealed radioactive source is radioactive material that is permanently sealed in a capsule, or bonded, and in a solid form.

Sealed radioactive sources are used by doctors in cancer treatment, for mapping underground structures, measuring density of soil, and in mining and research. In Australia, most sealed radioactive sources are found in fixed or portable gauges.

All these professions and industries will benefit now that Australia has a licensed, permanent repository that can safely dispose of DSRS.

Ahead of the disposal, our site team at Sandy Ridge prepared the vertical chamber in the cell during the excavation of the ramp as the cell floor level was filled with existing waste. A single package containing multiple DSRS and all associated paperwork was inserted into the chamber and sealed with concrete.

There is a reason why Sandy Ridge has regulatory approval to dispose of DSRS. Sandy Ridge is one of the most remote places on earth, with the safest geology to be found anywhere for storing hazardous and radioactive materials.

The package of DSRS, no doubt the first of many, joins more than 6,000 cubic metres of low-level radioactive waste that has been safely and permanently disposed at Sandy Ridge since the beginning of 2023.

Successive commonwealth governments spent nearly 50 years trying to establish a national repository for low-level radioactive waste. Thanks to our social licence, there is now a safe place for all radioactive waste holders in Australia to dispose of their material, including universities, medical facilities and the government’s radiological material too.

We are so proud to serve the community by finally solving this problem, and providing Australia with sovereign capability in the management of radioactive waste, including DSRS. In doing so, we acknowledge our regulator, the Government of Western Australia Radiological Council, which licences our LLW disposal facility.

Pictured is the type of DSRS, ‘check sources’ these are small button sized sources used for checking and calibration of measurement devices.