Technology Development
Isotopes produced in research reactors help diagnose and treat many common diseases including cancer.
| NEUTRONS FOR NEW PRODUCTS AND MATERIALS | ||
| Production
of significant quantities of isotopes for commercial utilization
typically requires a specially adopted research reactor with higher
neutron flux and hot cell facilities. However, many research reactors
are capable of irradiating materials to produce certain isotopes, as
there are a large number of medical applications for radioisotopes.
Most of the research reactors are used to produce isotopes for medical applications specially the production of molybdenum 99, which has a short half-life (66 hours) and decays to a metastable isotope of technetium: Tc-99m. It has applications in the evaluation of the medical condition of the heart, kidneys, lungs, liver, spleen and bone, and also for blood flow studies. |
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| Another
important radioisotope iodine-131 is used for medical and research
purpose, mainly for thyroid disorders.
Among many different isotopes, cobalt-60 is of main interest. Cobalt-60 is used in radiotherapy in hospitals and in many industrial applications. Large sources of cobalt-60 are used for sterilization of disposable medical equipments and for preservation of spices and certain food items. Materials, which are used in power reactors, are irradiated in research reactors to evaluate and test their response. Sufficiently high neutron fluxes can lead to hardening of metallic surfaces and influence the elasticity of materials. Although the initial nuclear inputs in research, development and production of materials have a relatively low investment cost, they often can contribute in indispensable ways to much larger social and economic enterprises e.g. in information technology and in energy research. Transmutation doping replaces some of the silicon atoms in a silicon wafer by phosphorus and changes the conductivity as is required for semiconductor development.
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