TU Delft patents new way to make radioisotopes

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Researchers at TU Delft, the Netherlands, have developed a new way to produce molybdenum-99, an unstable isotope that decays into technetium-99m, a radioisotope used widely in medicine, particular for cancer diagnosis.

Currently, the process to make technetium-99m involves fission of enriched uranium, a material for which manufacturers need a special permit.

Only six reactors around the world produce technetium-99m, which is used to treat some 40m patients globally per year. Three of these reactors are presently closed for maintenance – including Europe’s most important reactor, which is in Petten, the Netherlands. This situation has contributed to a shortage of radio isotopes in hospitals around the world.

Professor Bert Wolterbeek from TU Delft’s Reactor Institute Delft has patented a technique to make molybdenum-99 without the need for enriched uranium. This new method could allow this useful radio isotope to be made in many more locations that the current method permits.

The patented method involves molybdenum-98, a stable, naturally occurring isotope already extracted from the ground by mining companies. Professor Wolterbeek has shown that bombarding molybdenum-98 with neutrons produces molybdenum-99 that can be dissolved in water. This method produces the isotope in a highly concentrated form, which is necessary for its use in medicine.