21 November 2022
The Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA) officially opened its new $2.35 million anechoic chamber on 17 November 2022.
ARPANSA’s Radiation Research and Advice Director, Assoc Prof Sarah Loughran, says the new laboratory will allow the agency to undertake health research into the current 5G network and future generations of high-frequency wireless technology.
‘Our current anechoic chamber can only measure and calibrate equipment up to 8 GHz, and 5G is expected to use radio waves at frequencies well beyond this ' A/Prof Loughran said.
‘Because of that, it was vitally important that we built a new laboratory to make sure that we are well placed to continue providing science-based health advice to the Australian community on wireless-technology now and into the future.’
The new anechoic chamber will be able to calibrate equipment up to 40 GHz and research radio waves up to 100 GHz.
Upgrading the agency’s EME infrastructure was a key deliverable under its 2020-2024 EME Action Plan.
In late 2020, ARPANSA commenced a tender process and selected a vendor to build its new EME laboratory.
The new lab replaces ARPANSA’s former anechoic chamber which was built in 1979.
Subscribe to APRANSA’s EME newsletter to stay up to date with activities and research relating to the action plan.
