A $12-million pilot project in Saskatoon will produce medical isotopes at the Canadian Light Source (CLS) by using linear accelerator technology instead of a more expensive and less reliable nuclear reactor.
The project is one of four in the country that aim to study an as-yet unproven process that uses high energy particle accelerators, which do not require the weapons-grade uranium used in current isotope farming, to ensure a consistent supply of medical isotopes for Canada.
Federal and provincials officials made the funding announcement Monday afternoon at the CLS on the University of Saskatchewan campus. Natural Resources Canada approved the project in October, but the funding details – $10 million from Ottawa, $2 million from the province – had not been revealed until this week.
The CLS, home of Canada’s synchrotron research centre, will use the $12 million to purchase and operate a linear accelerator to produce and study the isotopes, which are used for diagnosis and treatment in nuclear medicine.
Isotopes produced in Saskatoon will be tested by researchers at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute and the University Health Network in Toronto. The National Research Council and NorthStar Medical Radioisotopes will assist in the design and production phases of the project.
Natural Resources Canada offered a $35-million pot of research funding for similar projects at four institutions: The CLS, Advanced Cyclotron Systems, TRUIMF and Prairie Isotope Production Enterprise.
CLS proposes 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. To date, Ottawa has had difficulty selling the operation to private industry.
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