A laboratory was closed and a technician had been banned for life from using radioactive material on this day in 1991, after a radiation incident at the Australian National University.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
A story on the front page of The Canberra Times said radiation levels in a make-shift laboratory at the university rose to levels that were yet to be determined.
It was the "last straw" for the ACT Radiation Council in a series of Geology Department mishaps that had been "bubbling over for a number of years".
"The incident had been wholly caused by an unauthorised laboratory move from one building to another," the story said.
"The lab in question was built as a botany laboratory and was inadequate for the purpose of analysis."
Then-Geology Department head, Mike Rickard, described the incident as minor but ordered that the building's locks be changed to reassure the council the researcher would have no further access.
Two years prior, the same researcher had their license turned over to Dr Rickard after an incident where a technician had been irradiated beyond normal levels.
