2.2.3
Health and Nuclear Medicine
Each year, thousands of NHS patients benefit from the advances of nuclear medicine in their treatment.
Trace amounts of radioisotopes are used to diagnose and treat health conditions including many types of cancer, heart disease and thyroid disease and for the early detection and assessment of brain disorders such as epilepsy, Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia.
As medicine develops and breaks new frontiers, the use of radioisotopes will continue to be a significant component of this.
One in two UK citizens will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime and may well see their quality of life and the efficacy of their treatments enhanced as a result of nuclear medicine.
Each year, global demand for these treatments increases at a rate of up to five per cent. Every hospital in the UK uses them to help patients on a daily basis. Yet the supply of the radioisotopes required faces a global shortage.
Presently the UK has no home-grown supply for the vast majority of radioisotopes needed. We rely on imports from ageing European facilities.
In the 1950s and 1960s when such treatments began, we were global leaders in their production and medical use. We need to be again. And we can be.
Building on this heritage, and on NNL’s world-leading capability in the area of complex chemical separation and purification of nuclear material with many years of experience, our objective is to develop production of the radioisotopes needed to develop new treatments. By co-locating a facility for this with space for academic and clinical medical work, we could directly enable engagement and access to materials for research and development.
Harvesting radioisotopes from existing nuclear material is a proven and beneficial approach to providing what is needed by medical clinicians and researchers. NNL has already developed a number of new radioisotope production routes and has begun the early development work to start building this as a capability for the UK. Our plan is to take this early work and progress it over the short term into a sustainable route to allow the regular provision of radioisotopes.
This is a significant new opportunity for NNL and core to our new purpose of nuclear science to benefit society. It would be transformative for healthcare in the UK and, given the global nature of the challenge, citizens of the other countries we supply.
And in developing a facility within one of our existing, nuclear-licensed laboratories, we would be creating new long-term and high-quality employment in the North West.
But harvesting medical radioisotopes requires the desired radioisotope to be present in the source material. Where this is not the case, a method to make the radioisotope is required, typically using an accelerator system or a nuclear reactor. Currently the UK does not have sovereign capabilities to do this except for a small number of specific radioisotopes. Addressing this missing infrastructure is core to our strategy and the surest way for the UK to create the indigenous supply it needs.
We are in dialogue with key stakeholders about the potential for a neutron accelerator system, known as STELLAR, to be installed within an existing nuclear facility. Combined with our existing capability in the form of hot cells and glove boxes, this would transform the UK’s ability to produce a wide range of medical radioisotopes.
In addition to building our internal capability and expertise, we are also engaging with academia, industry and the medical profession. By bringing together these sectors, we are helping the UK establish a domestic supply of radioisotopes and compete in the global market, estimated to be worth £23 billion by 2024.
Access to material, understanding the pull from medical science and articulating the benefit to the UK are all important in achieving our objectives for this area. Investment in new critical infrastructure to enable the full ambition, such as neutron accelerator capability, requires a clear business case that has wide support.
This is a significant new opportunity for NNL and core to our new purpose of nuclear science to benefit society. It would be transformative for healthcare in the UK and, given the global nature of the challenge, citizens of the other countries we supply.
And in developing a facility within one of our existing, nuclear-licensed laboratories, we would be creating new long-term and high-quality employment in the North West.
How other countries are progressing this agenda
In the US, the Department of Energy has joined forces with Isotek Systems and TerraPower, the nuclear research venture founded by Bill Gates, to provide extremely rare and unique isotopes for cancer research and treatment. This public-private partnership uses thorium extracted from nuclear material stored as waste at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee to support lifesaving radiation doses for cancer patients.
“One of the common things we get asked is, ‘How can I make this radioisotope?’. If we can find a way to do this, it might result in better medical treatment for somebody who is unwell.”
Allan Simpson Nuclear and Reactor Physics Team
Allan Simpson joined our Graduate Scheme in 2016, and is now part of our Nuclear and Reactor Physics Team:
“As a team, we provide technical advice and input on a broad range of topics, from calculating the contents of used nuclear fuel to the development of advanced detector systems for monitoring waste.
One of the common things we get asked is, ‘How can I make this radioisotope?’.
If we can find a way to do this, it might result in better medical treatment for somebody who is unwell. However, the answer depends on thousands of different measurements within nuclear data libraries that allow us to calculate what happens at an isotopic level when materials are irradiated.
Until now, we have had to delve into the data and manually calculate how much of an isotope could potentially be made, but this year our team has been working on a project that is changing that. I had previously recognised that we could adapt our fuel inventory code to run the calculations needed, so after discussing with one of our team, our project this year is to develop the code.
Our code will allow us to quickly look at the production routes for some of the thousands of isotopes that have been identified. Using particle accelerators, we’d be able to transmute the contents of different streams – including waste streams that already exist on nuclear sites in the UK – to produce what is needed.
This means we could reduce the amount of overall waste that needs to be stored in the UK, whilst helping to reduce the suffering of people from diseases like cancer.”