INL creating device to make cheaper cancer-treating isotope

IDAHO FALLS – The Idaho National Laboratory is working on a way to make a cancer-treating isotope cheaper to produce.

By the end of September, researchers hope to install a device that can shuttle radioactive isotopes in and out of the lab’s Advanced Test Reactor without shutting down the reactor.

Without the device, it’s too expensive to make cesium-131, which is used to fight prostate, lung and pancreatic cancer, according to IsoRay Medical, a Richland company that wants to produce the isotope at the lab.

“We are making a lot of progress getting the shuttle ready to be installed by Sept. 30,” said John Snyder, an INL manager overseeing the project.

Officials say that without the shuttle, the reactor would have to be shut down to move the isotopes in and out, making the process too expensive.

IsoRay wants to use the reactor to produce isotopes about the size of a grain of rice that would be placed in a person’s body to fight cancer. Because of their small size, the medical devices have a short half-life and all the radiation is gone in about two weeks, Snyder said.

That short half-life also means the devices require only a short time in the nuclear reactor, making it impractical to shut down the reactor each time the isotopes are produced.

If the shuttle is successful, the next step would be to formalize a production agreement between IsoRay and the INL, officials said. The primary concern with such a contract is coming up with accurate cost estimates for producing the cesium-131 isotope, Snyder said.

“The INL, by law, cannot enter into a fixed-cost contract,” he said. “If our estimates are (low), then the customer has to cover the additional costs. That’s not good for business.”