[cdn-nucl-l] "Cyclotrons to be 'hijacked' to solve isotope crisis"

["Jaro Franta" <jaro-10kbq@sympatico.ca>]

Interesting.
I thought that these little cyclotrons can only produce significant
quantities of proton-rich isotopes like F-19, not neutron-rich ones like
Tc-99m.
Plus of course their automated mini-processing systems are not set up for
it.... 
See also http://www.cns-snc.ca/branches/quebec/slowpoke/CHUS_forensique.html


 Jaro
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^


http://www.montrealgazette.com/health/Cyclotrons+hijacked+solve+isotope+cris
is/2204503/story.html 
Cyclotrons to be 'hijacked' to solve isotope crisis 
Canwest News Service, November 10, 2009 3:06 AM
  
Researchers plan to "hijack" cyclotrons in major medical centres across
Canada in a bid to generate rare isotopes and help solve the country's
nuclear medicine crisis.

"We hope to have something that we can start putting into people within two
years," said physicist Timothy Meyer at TRIUMF, a Vancouver-based physics
research centre and partner in the $1.3-million project approved by federal
agencies yesterday.

The project, the largest of several looking at short-term solutions to the
isotope crisis, will use cyclotrons at universities and medical suppliers to
try produce isotope technetium-99m, a key isotope used in nuclear medicine.

The project promises a local, short-term solution to the isotope shortage,
he said, one that could help tide the country over until a more permanent
solution is found.

"It could meet localized pockets of high demand," he said, noting that
cyclotrons in Montreal, Sherbrooke, Toronto, Edmonton and Vancouver could be
redirected to produce technetium-99m.