Healthcare & Aged CarePatrick LauWed 15 Jul 26
Multimillion-Dollar Demolition to Clear Radioactive Sydney Site
A radioactive particle accelerator in Sydney’s Inner West is to be demolished and the 3300sq m site returned to healthcare uses.
The $17-million demolition project comes as the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) ends its lease on the site at 81 Missenden Road, in the Camperdown health and research precinct associated with the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and the University of Sydney.
The particle accelerator was decommissioned in 2021, but the specialised two-storey building cannot be repurposed. Instead, demolition works will include remediation of irradiated underground vaults with 2m thick concrete walls.
After a proposal from ANSTO, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Works recommended in June that the National Research Cyclotron Facility be approved for demolition, and returned to the Sydney Local Health District.
The 740,000 residents in the health district will be better served by other healthcare uses for the site, ANSTO told the committee.
Since initially developed in 1991, the cyclotron’s function in producing isotopes for medical purposes has been made redundant by improved technology and the proliferation of similar smaller facilities (including one in the hospital next door).
Radiopharmaceuticals will instead be produced at Lucas Heights, where ANSTO also operates Australia’s only nuclear reactor at Lucas Heights. A rare earths processing facility is also being developed at the Lucas Heights campus.
The facility neighbours the $650-million Sydney Biomedical Accelerator precinct jointly developed by the hospital and university, as well as other healthcare and research facilities, and accommodation targeted to students and nurses.
In June 2025, weak demand from life sciences and healthcare tenants prompted the pivot of a private hospital development at 122-130 Pyrmont Bridge Road and 206 Parramatta Road. Instead, proponents Cosgrove Group and Mathieson Property will pursue build-to-rent accommodation with a 15 per cent key worker component.
ANSTO will develop a strict security program for the demolition works, to prevent deliberate threats as well as access by health workers and students.
In February 2020, police and Taronga Zoo handlers were called to the car park next to the cyclotron after a male baboon and his two female consorts escaped while being transported to Royal Prince Alfred for a vasectomy.
