New reports outline bright future for energy and accelerators in Australia

The Australian Academy of Science has launched two new reports on the future of Australian science in the areas of accelerator science and energy.

The reports, supported by the Defence Science and Technology Group, were produced by some of the country’s most influential scientists, and seek to highlight leading research from around the world, and make recommendations on how research and innovation in these areas can be enhanced in the future.

The first report, Energy for Australia in the 21st Century: The central role of electricity, outlines the challenges posed by Australia’s aging infrastructure when trying to respond to rapidly evolving technologies.

Focusing on three key drivers—affordability, security and sustainability—the report examines the science and technology that will drive and enable a transformation in Australia’s electricity system over the coming decades.

As part of the report, the following recommendations were made:

• Develop an overarching National Energy Research Institute, to link the diverse and dispersed energy research being conducted in Australia
• Overhaul energy structures to cope with rapid changes in energy technologies and end-use behaviour since its initial establishment in the 1990s
• Enhance information technology, communications and electronic control expertise
• Better collaborate with international partners.

The second report, titled Discovery Machines: Accelerators for science, technology, health and innovation, explores the science of particle accelerators, the machines that supercharge our ability to discover the secrets of nature and have opened up new tools in medicine, energy, manufacturing, the environment and research.

Particle accelerators are now an essential ingredient in discovery science because they offer new ways to analyse the world (by probing objects with high energy x-rays and beams of electrons for example). They also have a huge—but often unnoticed—impact on all our lives; medical imaging, cancer treatment, new materials and even the chips that power our phones and computers have all been transformed by accelerators of various types. Research accelerators also have a knack of encouraging better collaboration between international and domestic scientists, organisations and governments.

This report outlines recommendations around the need to ensure ongoing operation of Australia’s existing world-class accelerator infrastructure; developing programs that attract the best and brightest students and further encourage international collaboration; and a call for a combined state and federal examination of the value and feasibility of hadron therapy as a promising cancer treatment.

The full reports can be accessed in the Reports and Publications section of our website.