After 20 years of service the National Medical Cyclotron (NMC), based at Camperdown, Sydney will officially retire next week it was announced today. The facility produced medical isotopes for application in nuclear medicine.
The NMC produced about 2 million patient doses in its twenty years of service providing cyclotron-based products across Australia and to nearby countries.
The key isotopes currently produced at the NMC are Thallium-201, Gallium-67 and Iodine-123. Arrangements are in place to import these until a new capability is established in Australia.
The 15 employees affected are to be redeployed at the Lucas Heights’ campus, subject to final agreements being reached.
ANSTO provides around 500,000 patient doses of reactor-produced medical isotopes per year from the OPAL reactor which are neutron “rich”. The 100,000 doses of cyclotron-produced isotopes from the NMC are “proton rich” and cannot be made in a reactor.