One of the various hot-cells for the handling of irradiated stuff at OPAL. This one reactor will double the size of the Australian radiopharmacological exports.

As a reliable and very flexible neutron source, OPAL will serve at least in four main purpouses: 

• Radioisotope production
• Scientific research
• Neutron-activation analysis of materials 
• Silicon ingot doping, for the semiconductor industry

It is not usual for a "production" reactor, focused on churning out radioisotopes, to be used as a main scientific and academic unit, but such is the case of OPAL.

Research Facilities

The reactor is specially designed to sustain neutron-related research, with three different sources supplying neutrons with varying energy ranges.

• One cold neutron source, for very low energy neutrons.
• One thermal neutron source, for medium range energy neutrons.
• There is a further provision for a future option to provide a hot neutron source for higher energies.

Five assemblies for the extraction of neutron beams are grouped around the reactor core. From these, the neutrons are led towards the neutron guides. The neutron guides conduct the neutrons from the sources with minimum attenuation towards the experimental setups, which can be as far as 40 metres away from the reactor core. Two well-sized beam-rooms leave sufficient working space for the experimental assemblies for the different research projects.
		Sophisticated neutron guides draw minimally attenuated neutrons as far as 40 meters from the core, and have them impact on experiment set-ups built in this room.

Irradiation Facilities

For very different approaches to the production of radioisotopes, targets are placed at preestablished positions within the reflector tank.

There are provisions for the following irradiation facilities:

• General purpose irradiation facilities.
• Batch irradiation facilities.
• Large volume irradiation facilities.
• Neutron activation laboratory.
• Silicon laboratory, "doped" by neutron transmutation.
• Radioactive materials´ handling facilities ("hot cells") for target handling, including their charge and discharge and their transfer to the radioisotope production plant.

With is many capacities, OPAL will serve very different needs of the Australian industrial, medical, scientific and mining communities.