The federal government has approved a Canadian Light Source proposal that aims to produce medical isotopes without using a nuclear reactor.
Natural Resources Canada announced Friday proposals from four institutions — the CLS, Advanced Cyclotron Systems, TRUIMF and Prairie Isotope Production Enterprise — have been approved for funding.
The CLS, home of Canada’s synchrotron research centre, is asking Ottawa for $10 million to purchase and operate a linear accelerator to make the isotopes, which are used for diagnosis and treatment in nuclear medicine.
Natural Resources Canada will negotiate with the four institutions to determine final funding agreements, which are expected to be finalized by the end of 2010. A $35-million pot of research funding for the four projects is available.
CLS proposed to use a linear accelerator, which measures four metres long, to make enough isotopes for 20 to 30 per cent of Canada’s requirements.
The linear accelerator would shoot a concentrated beam of electrons at a stack of coin-sized disks made of molybdenum-100. The reaction would knock out one neutron to leave moly-99, which decays in a 66-hour period to create technetium-99, the isotope used for nuclear medicine.
There’s no fission in the process and, unlike reactors, there’s no issues with radioactive waste, according to the CLS.
Ottawa operates the isotope-producing National Research Universal reactor at Chalk River, Ont., but the government plans to sell reactor operator Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd.
The StarPhoenix