Medical isotope production at CLS

Medical isotope production at CLS: as the faith of Chalk River Labs and its missions (isotope production, nuclear R&D and neutron scattering) hangs in the balance (see the post related to the government's request for expression of interest from private sector for Chalk River Labs), it seems more progress is made in medical isotope production using X-rays, ... again even if this method is successful in medical isotope production, there are other types of isotopes that NRU makes as well as allowing scientists to perform nuclear R&D and neutron scattering... A neutron source will be required to replace the aging NRU for Canada to maintain and expand it expertise and excellence in these areas... http://www.lightsource.ca/media/media_release_20120215.php "A research project exploring the potential for making medical isotopes with X-rays from a particle accelerator instead of a nuclear reactor is about to move to the large scale. The Canadian Isotope Project, led by the Canadian Light Source (CLS) and partners including the National Research Council of Canada, and medical researchers in Winnipeg, Ottawa and Toronto, is set to scale up their work to production levels with the delivery of a new particle accelerator built by Ontario-based Mevex Corporation.
“We are very excited to be passing this key milestone in the project,” says Mark de Jong, CLS Director of Accelerators and project leader. “We have made a lot of progress over the last year in terms of the project’s theoretical work, refining different pieces of the process and moving construction and design of our test bed forward. With the delivery of this full-scale accelerator we can now move to demonstrate what we set out to do – produce medical isotopes safely, reliably and affordably.”'