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Your account has been created successfully, and a confirmation email is on the way. Can they overcome their checkered past? The key medical isotope technetiumm can be produced directly in hospital cyclotrons, rather than by extracting the isotope from material made in nuclear reactors, a team of Canadian researchers reported on Feb.
Until now, the reactor-based method has been the only practical way to produce technetiumm in sufficient quantities to meet world demand and with sufficient purity of the end product.
Multiple efforts are under way to replace reactor-generated technetiumm, he said, and eventually a few of them are likely to prove commercially viable. The team also developed chemistry to isolate and purify the medical isotope. The idea of using cyclotrons to produce technetiumm is not new, but several challenges had to be addressed to make the technology market-ready, Schaffer said.
For example, he said, the team needed to be able to make the isotope in sufficient quantities and find easier ways to make the molybdenum targets. Now, the team needs to seek regulatory approval in the U. He said that Health Canada and the U. The quantities of technetiumm that can be produced in a cyclotron are limited, he says. And because technetiumm has a short half-life of about six hours, there would be heavy demands on hospital cyclotrons to maintain adequate supply.
On top of that, he noted, the molybdenum targets would have to be replaced once a week or so in order to keep generating technetiumm. With the reactor method, however, hospitals and clinics receive a solution of molybdenum, which decays slowly to technetiumm. Clinicians can extract the medical-imaging isotope from this solution over and over for weeks, he says.
Contact the reporter. Submit a Letter to the Editor for publication. Engage with us on Twitter. The power is now in your nitrile gloved hands Sign up for a free account to increase your articles. Or go unlimited with ACS membership. It occurs naturally in very small amounts in the earth's crust, but is primarily man-made. Technetium is produced during nuclear reactor operation, and is a byproduct of nuclear weapons explosions. Technetium can be found as a component of nuclear waste. Technetiumm is a short-lived form of Tc that is used as a medical diagnostic tool.
It has a short half-life 6 hours and does not remain in the body or the environment for long. Beta Particles. Air, sea water, soils, plants and animals contain very low concentrations of Tc Because of its long half-life, Tc remains in the environment for an extended period of time. Organic matter in soils and sediments slow the transport of Tc In the presence of oxygen, plants readily take up technetium compounds from the soils.
Some plants such as brown algae in seawater are able to concentrate Tc Sea animals can also concentrate Technetium in their bodies.
Tiny amounts of Tc are part of the environment and are found in food and water. Higher amounts may be found close to contaminated facilities such as federal weapons facilities or nuclear fuel cycle facilities. Exposure to technetium from the environment is unlikely. Most human exposure to technetium comes from the intentional use of Tcm in nuclear medicine. Technetium can pose a health risk when it enters the body.
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