This Accelerator Can Supply A Whole City With Medical Isotopes Overnight
Medical Cyclotron Courtesy ACSI A refitted cyclotron could solve the shortage of Tc-99m, an isotope used in medical imaging. Researchers at the BC Cancer Agency in Vancouver and TRIUMF, the Canadian national particle and nuclear physics lab, have successfully produced vital supplies of Technetium-99m, a medical imaging isotope, using a retrofitted cyclotron, a type of particle accelerator already in place in hospitals. Using this technology, metropolitan areas could combat the increasing shortage of Tc-99m, an isotope that can be used in medicine to see how the heart and other organs are functioning. This isotope has traditionally been created through the fission of weapons-grade uranium, which produces a radionuclide called molybdenum-99. Mo-99, which has a half-life of 66 hours, decays into Tc-99m. It's now produced largely at two nuclear reactors, one at Chalk River in Canada and the other in the Netherlands. Both facilities are in the process of shuttering...