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Medical Isotopes and Nuclear Power

Radiation and medical isotopes are routinely and increasingly used to diagnose and treat many diseases. However, these medical uses do not depend on nuclear power reactors in any essential way.

No doubt some medical isotopes can be produced in a nuclear reactor, but it doesn’t have to be a power reactor. Even if all the power reactors were shut down, the supply of medical isotopes would still be met by traditional alternative means.

From the beginning, all medical needs for artificial (human-made) isotopes have been met by particle accelerators and a handful of research reactors scattered around the world, including those in Canada.

Nevertheless, nuclear proponents argue nowadays that new nuclear power stations are “necessary” to ensure that the medical profession has all the diagnostic and therapeutic tools it needs. It’s a new sales pitch, and it’s not true.

For starters, X-rays and CT scans have nothing to do with nuclear reactors. Moreover, for the last 125 years – and for decades before the first power reactors were built in the late 1950s – medical isotopes have been (a) extracted from natural sources (e.g. radium needles, radon seeds), (b) produced in particle accelerators like cyclotrons (e.g. for PET scans), or (c) harvested from “target materials” irradiated in research reactors (e.g. technetium-99m).

None of these modes of production depend on nuclear power reactors, which are designed specifically to produce bulk electricity. Anything non-electrical is an afterthought.

It is true that one isotope, cobalt-60, has been produced in Canadian power reactors for both medical and industrial use, but the direct medical usage could be fully satisfied by research reactors.

None of these modes of production depend on nuclear power reactors, which are designed specifically to produce bulk electricity. Anything non-electrical is an afterthought.

It is true that one isotope, cobalt-60, has been produced in Canadian power reactors for both medical and industrial use, but the direct medical usage could be fully satisfied by research reactors.

To improve its public relations image, the nuclear industry has seen fit to diversify its operations by beginning to produce medical isotopes in power reactors, implying that it is providing an indispensable service to the medical community. Again, untrue.

For further information, consult this FACT SHEET

May 31, 2024 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | health