Medical isotopes possible without a nuclear reactor

[nec209]

Medical isotopes possible without a nuclear reactor

 

VANCOUVER—Canadian scientists say they have developed a technique to produce medical isotopes in hospitals and clinics without the need for a nuclear reactor.

 

The announcement, on the final day of the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s annual meeting in Vancouver, could signal the end to a crisis that has shaken up the medical community, politicians in Ottawa, and patients throughout Canada.

 

Two ageing nuclear reactors produce about 75 per cent of the global supply of medical isotopes. One of them, the reactor in Chalk River, Ont., about 180 kilometres north of Ottawa, produces 40 per cent of the supply of the raw materials needed to produce the isotopes.

 

But the era of dependency on nuclear reactors in the production of isotopes is over, said Tom Ruth, senior scientist at TRIUMF, the national laboratory for particle and nuclear physics based in Vancouver.

 

“It’s clearly a financial issue with the government as they don’t want to invest more money into the existing reactor (at Chalk River),” he said Monday.

 

By upgrading equipment already stored in a dozen hospital basements across Canada, the scientists say they can manufacture the isotopes with out the nuclear component.

 

 

Read more here http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/1134256--medical-isotopes-possible-without-a-nuclear-reactor?bn=1

 

 

What are isotopes and why are isotopes needed?

[CharonY]

Are the question regarding isotopes or specifically the use of them in the medical area? In short, isotope are elements with different numbers of neutrons. In medicine they are often used for diagnostic purposes as well as utilizing radioactivity to destroy cells (as e.g. in cancer treatment, or in cases Grave's disease). You may want to read up on nuclear medicine.

[Schrödinger's hat]

Read more here http://www.thestar.c...ar-reactor?bn=1

 

 

What are isotopes and why are isotopes needed?

 

First, a little background. Some of it is required to answer the question, some is just related:

Atoms are made up of three kinds of sub-atomic particle. Protons and neutrons in a tiny tightly packed ball, and electrons in a much bigger area around them.

The defining feature (chemically) of an atom is the number and arrangement of the electrons floating around it.

This in turn is defined by the atomic number, or the number of protons in the atom. One electron for every proton. The electrons come because they are attracted by the protons. Once there is an equal number, the atom is, on average, neutral and no more electrons will be attracted.

Knocking electrons off, and moving them about is fairly easy, but this leaves the atom charged.

In an otherwise electrically neutral environment another electron will quickly arrive to take the place of a missing one.

In short, an element is defined by the number of protons.

 

But not all elements with a set number of protons have the same number of neutrons.

Neutrons are neutral, so they don't attract/repel electrons and thus don't change how the element behaves chemically (well, they do slightly, but not so as you'd notice 99% of the time).

 

Atoms with the same number of protons (atomic number) but different number of neutrons are called the different isotopes of the atom.

Take carbon.

Carbon has atomic number 6, for 6 protons (and thus 6 electrons).

But it can have 6, 7, or 8^* neutrons and still hold together (for a while at least).

So we have three isotopes of carbon

Carbon-12 (6 protons + 6 neutrons = 12 nucleons)

Carbon-13 (6 protons + 7 neutrons)

Carbon-14 (6 protons + 8 neutrons)

 

Most elements have one or two very stable isotopes. In this case carbon 12 and carbon 13.

Carbon 14 is unstable. It falls apart after a while, releasing an electron and turning into Nitrogen 14.

Isotopes that decay (turn into something else -- usualyl more stable) like this are known as radioactive isotopes, radioisotopes or unstable isotopes.

 

 

Medical isotopes are special radioisotopes that decay in ways that are useful for medicine.

Some elements release X-rays when they decay, so you can use them to run an x-ray machine (although there are other ways to make x-rays and I don't know which principle modern x-ray machines work on).

 

Other medical isotopes might be non-toxic and non-harmful enough that you can swallow or inject them safely.

They decay inside your body and looking at the resulting radiation can help a doctor see what's going on.

Some are used to produce gamma radiation for killing cancer cells.

 

Because these are unstable, you generally can't mine them, and many of them can't be stored for very long, either (you can't stop them decaying, so in effect they get used up even when you're not trying to use them).

The old way of making them is to get some other nuclear reaction happening near the element you want to turn into an unstable one. Neutrons that fly off from one reaction hit the nuclei and change them (Either turning something like cobalt-59 into cobalt 60, or something more complex).

This requires a strong neutron source, usually a running nuclear reactor.

 

The new way would involve smashing a charged particle or atomic nucleus into another nucleus, causing a reaction.

This doesn't require a nuclear reactor so can be done closer to the hospital.

 

 

* You could have more or less, but the atom would just fall apart and turn into one of the other isotopes or a different element.

[zapatos]

First, a little background. Some of it is required to answer the question, some is just related:...

That was a great explanation! I'd give you +2 if I could.