IF MEDICAL isotopes were created using particle accelerators rather than nuclear reactors it might keep the supply going when reactors shut down.
Thomas Ruth at Canada鈥檚 in Vancouver says that bombarding uranium with a powerful beam of light, rather than the neutrons used in traditional reactors, could produce the medical isotope molybdenum-99 (Nature, vol 457, p 5). The intense light could be produced by firing a 2-megawatt beam of electrons from a particle accelerator at a tungsten target.
The technique requires uranium-238, a less fissile uranium isotope than that used by reactors, making the fuel less dangerous if it fell into the wrong hands as it could not be used to create nuclear weapons. 鈥淚t largely removes any security issues,鈥� says Ruth. The method, which is cheaper than building reactors, will allow more countries to make their own medical isotopes, he adds.
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