TRIUMF : Canada's National Laboratory for Particle and Nuclear Physics

Over the past two years, the world experienced major supply interruptions of medical isotopes especially Technetium-99m (Tc-99m) when the reactors in Chalk River (Canada) and Petten (the Netherlands) were stopped for unplanned maintenance and repairs.

 The shortage of this isotope was felt around the world by many different types of patients and their families alike. Since those incidents, TRIUMF has been working with a team to develop alternatives. With funding from NRCan, TRIUMF is announcing a solution that will push medical isotope production from just a few large, global facilities to a system involving hospitals and clinics that already maintain an infrastructure for producing medical imaging radioisotopes. Below are details of this exciting opportunity. 

• TRIUMF and collaborators are using existing medical cyclotrons to implement the direct production of technetium-99m (Tc-99m) without nuclear reactors.

• By enabling regional hospitals to produce and distribute this lifesaving isotope to local clinics, widespread supply disruptions will be an issue of the past.

With support from the Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) Non-reactor-based Isotope Supply Contribution Program (NISP) and other sources, a world-class group of scientists have partnered to deliver an alternative technology for producing Tc-99m, the world’s most commonly used medical isotope. Recently, this isotope has been the subject of a world-wide shortage with the unexpected shutdowns of the two highest capacity nuclear reactors capable of producing molybdenum-99 (Mo-99), an isotope that undergoes radioactive decay to produce Tc-99m.

RESULTS

• Featured article in Physics in Medicine and Biology

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