One of the Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management’s (OREM) highest priority cleanup projects has significantly contributed to the medical world.
Office of Environmental Management
February 13, 2024
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OAK RIDGE, Tenn. — One of the Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management’s (OREM) highest priority cleanup projects has significantly contributed to the medical world.
OREM and contractor Isotek are leading an effort to eliminate the nation’s inventory of uranium-233 (U-233) from storage at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL).
U-233 presents risks and is costly to keep safe and secure. Originally created in the 1950s and 1960s for potential use in reactors, it proved to be an unviable fuel source.
OREM’s project is converting that material into a form safe for shipment and disposal. Additionally, an agreement with TerraPower is allowing Isotek employees to extract thorium-229 (Th-229), an extremely rare isotope, from the material before it is processed and disposed of.
“It’s important to extract Th-229 because that isotope only comes from U-233,” said Sarah Schaefer, Isotek president and project manager. “Most of the world’s supply of U-233 is stored at ORNL, so once this material is dispositioned no more Th-229 will be available.”
Most of the world’s thorium-229 is contained in Oak Ridge’s inventory of uranium-233. A project at the site estimates 40 grams of the material will be available to TerraPower, which will make 100 times more doses of next generation cancer treatments available annually than are currently available worldwide.
Isotek extracts the Th-229 before it’s shipped to TerraPower. The company has already received more than five grams of the rare material through seven shipments from the Oak Ridge project. Then, it uses that material to recover actinium-225 (Ac-225), a medical isotope behind a promising form of next generation cancer treatment called targeted alpha therapy.
TerraPower just announced it distributed the first samples of Ac-225 to two pharmaceutical companies to support the development of the revolutionary cancer treatment.
“Isotek’s mission is critical to saving this rare isotope,” said Schaefer. “We are so fortunate that a company like TerraPower was willing to invest in the recovery of Th-229.”
U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann speaks at an event last year announcing TerraPower’s plans to partner with medical companies to distribute medical isotopes for cancer treatments. Also pictured are leaders from EM, Isotek, TerraPower and Cardinal Health.
Once all Th-229 has been extracted over the next four years — an estimated 40 grams — 100 times more doses of next generation cancer treatments will be available annually than are currently available worldwide.
“Thanks to this partnership, the lives of many families will be changed for the better,” AtkinsRéalis US Nuclear President Jim Rugg said. “We are honored to be assisting the U.S. Department of Energy and TerraPower with this historic achievement.”
Isotek is a wholly owned subsidiary of AtkinsRéalis US Nuclear.
In treatments, the Ac-225 is attached to a molecule to selectively target and deliver the alpha-emitting radionuclide to a cancer site, destroying the cancerous tissue with minimal damage to nearby healthy cells.
Global demand for Ac-225 is expected to increase as more treatments are developed, making the work performed by OREM and Isotek more vital and impactful.
-Contributor: John Gray
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