Staff numbers at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) and its predecessor the Australian Atomic Energy Corporation (AAEC) peaked at 1354 in 1976.

Staffing has fallen to the current level of about 750 despite the operation of the HIFAR reactor throughout this period.

In the late 1980s the federal government demanded that staff levels be reduced by 240. ANSTO management complied in the expectation that greater funding would be available to upgrade ANSTO's buildings and equipment. ANSTO management - overachieving as always! - forced through staff cuts of 241 from 1987 to 1994.

The new reactor will not ensure job security for ANSTO employees. History suggests that staff cuts and cuts to program funding will partially fund the $300 million new reactor. Staff cuts are all the more likely when the massive cost blow-out associated with the new reactor project begins to bite.

ANSTO staff whose work is not directly tied to reactor operations should fight the plan to replace HIFAR: they may pay for the new reactor with their jobs.

Only 31% of ANSTO's research depends on the operation of a reactor according to an independent study conducted by Professor Geoffrey Wilson (see appendix to 1993 Research Reactor Review report). Former ANSTO scientist Murray Scott conducted a program-by-program analysis and concluded that only 21% of ANSTO's work depends on the reactor; just 14% if the CSIRO facility is included. Two current ANSTO scientists estimate that 30-40% of ANSTO's work is reactor-dependent. The claim from ANSTO management that all of ANSTO’s jobs depend on the reactor (directly or indirectly) should be disregarded as just another ANSTO lie.

HIFAR should be shut down without replacement and the $300 million should be used for non-reactor based medical and scientific projects and facilities (e.g. particle accelerators) at Lucas Heights. This opens up a win-win scenario:
- few if any job losses, and possibly more jobs
- greater benefits for medicine and science
- public support instead of division and hostility
- much less radioactive waste
- increased safety (never forget the response of ANSTO management to the February ‘99 accidents ...)

A significant cohort of current ANSTO employees is reaching retirement age and will retire at about the time the planned new reactor is scheduled for commissioning. Scientists have had to be lured out of retirement just to assess tenders for the new reactor. Who on earth will operate the planned new reactor? The expertise does not exist in Australia, nor is there any certainty that appropriately-skilled staff can be found overseas.

Claims that local residents (and others) opposed to the new reactor are responsible for low staff morale at Lucas Heights are disingenuous. An ANSTO staff member noted in March 2000 that “staff morale is exceptionally low ... because of unprecedented ineptitude at a senior management level.”

AAEC/ANSTO staff decline despite the continued operation of the HIFAR reactor:
1976 - 1354 staff
1982 - 1056
1987 - 1026
1991 - 878
1994 - 785 full-time, 46 part-time
2000 - ~750