ARPANSA - Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency

Peter Burns PSM
Acting Chief Executive Officer

Peter was appointed as Acting CEO of ARPANSA on 28 November 2008.

The functions of the CEO are to advise the Government and the public and carry out research on radiation protection, nuclear safety and medical exposures to radiation (both ionizing and non-ionizing). ARPANSA also regulates the national Government's use of radiation and nuclear installations, notably the nuclear facilities at Lucas Heights in Sydney.

Peter was trained as an applied physicist at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.

Peter joined the Australian Public Service with the Commonwealth X-ray and Radium Laboratory in 1968 and has worked in a variety of positions associated with radiation protection, radionuclide metrology and environmental assessment, including the rehabilitation of the former nuclear weapons test sites at Maralinga. Since 1999 he has been the Director of the Environmental and Radiation Health Branch of ARPANSA.

In June 2001 Peter was awarded the Public Service Medal in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for outstanding public service in the fields of environmental and radiation safety and is currently a member of Committee IV of the International Commission on Radiological Protection. For the last ten years he has been Australian Representative to the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation and was Chairman of that committee from 2006 to 2008.

 

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