Towards a new, greener era for medical imaging

17/03/2022

A Belgian institute is developing a new technology that offers an alternative to the use of uranium in the radioisotopes used in medical imaging.

In partnership with ASML, a Dutch company producing electronic chips, researchers at the Institute for Radioelements (IRE) in Fleurus (in the province of Hainaut) are working on a very ambitious project that should make it possible to stop using uranium in nuclear medicine.

Removing the need for this radioactive element, whose supply, handling and waste storage pose real problems at an ethical and ecological level, is a real revolution that is about to occur thanks to the SMART (Source of MedicAl RadioisoTopes) project.

The IRE has just validated a new technology that allows it to do without uranium-235 in the production of molybdenum-99, the basic isotope used to make technetium-99 (another isotope), which is used in 80% of nuclear medicine diagnoses, particularly for scans.

Practically speaking, a non-radioactive molybdenum-100 has been produced using a new type of high-power superconducting linear electron accelerator. Known as "LightHouse", this process has been successfully carried out although on a reduced scale. It is a successful experiment that paves the way for the construction of a production plant at the Fleurus site that could be fully operational within five years.

This revolutionary scientific and technological challenge should strengthen IRE's position as a world leader in this sector.