Radioisotopes produced by LEU reactors are favoured by customers such as the United States because this ensures that the fuel can only be used for peaceful applications.
Australia’s OPAL reactor is one of only a few research reactors that runs on LEU producing commercial quantities of medical isotopes.
OPAL’s fuel consists of around 20 per cent uranium-235 fuel, which compares to older research reactors requiring as much as 95 per cent enriched uranium. ANSTO has recently started exporting supplies of the critical diagnostic agent, Mo-99 to North America.
Molybdenum-99 or Mo-99 is the raw isotope which is used to produce Technetium-99m (Tc-99m), a product that is used in the diagnosis for several illnesses like cancer and heart disease. ANSTO is the only producer of this nuclear medicine in Australia and supplies hospitals across the country with around 10,000 patient doses each week.
In a media release from the US National Nuclear Security Administration, Administrator Thomas D’Agostino said “Producing large-scale quantities of Mo-99 using LEU is a significant milestone for public health, and a critical step toward ending the use of highly enriched uranium in medical isotope production around the world.
It reduces a major hurdle to global threat reduction efforts by helping meet the global demand for critical medical isotopes without undermining nuclear nonproliferation efforts.”
Canada, The Netherlands, Belgium and South Africa are the four main countries that supply the majority of Mo-99 but scheduled shutdowns have caused major supply problems in recent years.
ANSTO’s production increase has set Australia up to be another major supplier and an important link in the chain thanks to its state-of-the-art OPAL reactor in Sydney’s south west.
The NNSA says Mo-99 produced with LEU is now supporting about one-third of the 50,000 medical diagnostic procedures that use this important medical radioisotope per day in the United States.
Technetium-99m is used in over 80 percent of nuclear medicine procedures worldwide. This amounts to some 30 million examinations globally each year.
Published: 03/06/2011