Lubi Dimitrovski, former Manager, ANSTO Waste Operations (1995-2012) and former General Manager Nuclear Operations (2013-2018), has received the ANA Award for 2022 in February in recognition of his leadership role in radioactive waste management in Australia .
He managed the development and upgrade of procedures and facilities for managing radioactive waste at ANSTO to the standard of international best practice and made significant contributions to national and international initiatives on the management of low and intermediate level waste.
Lubi Dimitrovski (lower left in yellow vest) withwaste cannister in 2015
As Manager, ANSTO Waste Operations (1995-2012) he was responsible for the safe management of ANSTO's radioactive waste infrastructure.
During his tenure, Lubi was a well-known, respected and valued manager at ANSTO, known for his honest and committed nature.
The current Manager of the OPAL reactor said that Lubi truly embodied ANSTO's value of Working Together because he achieved success through collaboration, teamwork and a sense of collective purpose.
Kate Lucas, who is part of the OPAL team and worked with Lubi for about 15 years, said he was completely honest and put his whole self into his work.
"This level of investment brought out the best in other people," she said.
Lubi played a key role in developing procedures and upgrading the ANSTO radioactive waste management infrastructure to world's best practice. This included a program to characterise ANSTO's radioactive waste and decommission the MOATA reactor to a greenfield site.
During this period, he provided technical expertise on radioactive waste and research reactor spent fuel management to the IAEA.
He was the Australian representative for the IAEA's Disposal Network for Low and Intermediate Level Waste (DISPONET), the Forum of Nuclear Cooperation Asia (FNCA) in the Asian region and the Australian representative at the IAEA Radioactive Waste Technical Advisory Committee (WATEC).
He was General Manager Nuclear Operations (2013-2018) responsible for the safe operation of the OPAL reactor. He led a multi-skilled team to maximise the safety, reliability and availability of the OPAL reactor and oversaw the safe storage and transport of used nuclear fuel and the return of reprocessed intermediate level waste from overseas.
