The world's highest-power solution-type medical isotope reactor developed by the China Nuclear Power Research and Design Institute of China National Nuclear Corporation has started construction in Sichuan and is expected to be completed and put into operation in 2027.
On January 30, the construction of the world's highest-power solution-type medical isotope reactor developed by the China Nuclear Power Research and Design Institute of China National Nuclear Corporation started construction in Sichuan.
The construction period of the medical isotope reactor is 42 months, and it is expected to be completed and put into operation in 2027, which is a new national business card for CNNC to build China's "medical isotopes and drugs". After the completion of the reactor, it will solve the demand for some domestic isotopes and drugs in the early stage, basically meet the domestic demand in the medium term, realize the localization of several new medical isotopes, and reach the international leading position for a long time, completely solve the problem of domestic medical isotope shortage and nuclear medicine development, and become an important supply base for global medical isotopes and drugs, reduce the pain of diseases, benefit the people, and reduce the price of domestic medical isotope drugs, so that more people can use and afford them.
As the basis of nuclear medicine diagnosis and treatment, medical isotopes are widely used in the diagnosis and treatment of major diseases such as cardiovascular and cerebrovascular, malignant tumors, and neurodegeneration. Limited by the development of the medical isotope industry, the application level of nuclear medicine in mainland China has been unable to meet the needs of the domestic medical market, and the international market is also facing supply problems. At present, the research and development of medical isotopes in mainland China mainly relies on engineering research reactors, but because they also shoulder other tasks, the ability to produce medical isotopes is limited. On the demand side, the market demand for medical isotopes and their compounds is growing at a rate of 25%-30% per year. The extremely limited scale of production of reactors is simply not enough to meet the growing market demand. In recent years, the Nuclear Power Institute has launched the innovative research and development of more than 10 isotopes commonly used in medical treatment, and has achieved a series of results. In 2021, the National Engineering Research Center for Medical Isotopes and Drugs led by the Nuclear Power Institute was officially approved, which is also the only engineering research center in the field of isotopes and drugs approved by the National Development and Reform Commission.
It is understood that after the medical isotope reactor is put into operation, it will achieve an annual production capacity of 100,000 curies and 20,000 curies for molybdenum-99 and iodine-131 medical isotopes respectively, which exceeds the current domestic demand, and will turn the mainland from an importer to an exporter in one fell swoop, and also allow domestic patients to enjoy more stable and low-cost nuclear medicine services.
Source: CNNC's WeChat official account End
Edit | Yan Zhiqiang