Isotope Development
Nuclear Medicine Program
Nuclear Medicine Program research is focused on the development of improved reactor production and processing methods to provide medical radioisotopes, the development of new radionuclide generator systems, the design and evaluation of new radiopharmaceuticals for applications in nuclear medicine and oncology, and association with Medical Cooperative Programs throughout the world for the further preclinical testing and clinical evaluation of agents developed at ORNL. In the United States, only ORNL has available the combined resources of the stable isotope inventory, a High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR), hot cell processing capabilities, and a wide range of support functions required for such research. These collective resources provide unique capabilities for nuclear medicine research and radioisotope production.
Our current research program primarily focuses on the production and processing of therapeutic beta- and alpha-emitting radioisotopes and development and use of radionuclide generator systems. Many of the radioisotopes of current interest are produced in high specific activity using the ORNL High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR), which include high specific activity lutetium-177 and other lanthanides for targeted therapy, and tungsten-188 for the tungsten-188/rhenium-188 generator system. Rhenium-188 technologies developed at ORNL are currently used in a number of clinical protocols for treatment of nonresectable liver cancer, palliative treatment of metastatic bone pain, inhibition of arterial restenosis following angioplasty, and for radiosynovectomy therapy of arthritis. The Drug Master File (DMF) for the generator is filed with the FDA and manufacture under cGMP is being implemented. Another major ORNL area of therapeutic radioisotope research includes production of the alpha-emitting radioisotope actinium-225, which is used in radiotherapy of cancer. Actinium-225 is routinely extracted from the thorium-229 stock, and ORNL is currently the largest supplier of this medical radioisotope.
Stable Isotope Materials and Chemistry
A large inventory of enriched stable isotopes is available and managed under an ISO-9001 quality program. Also, a wide variety of custom-order chemical and materials processing services are available from ORNL's Isotope Development Group. Inorganic compound synthesis is available to process inventory-form stable isotopes into the desired chemical forms to meet most customer needs. Metallurgical, ceramic, and high vacuum processing methods are available to prepare enriched stable isotopes in a wide variety of chemical and physical forms. An indication of typical alternate chemical and physical forms available for each element is given on the individual enriched stable isotope catalog pages. The preparation of other alternate forms may also be investigated, upon request. A lease program for enriched stable isotopes is also available.
Current capabilities include:
- Inorganic chemical conversions pyrochemical conversions
- Arc melting and alloying hot and cold rolling of metal foils
- Arc melting and drop casting
- Crucible melting and casting
- Wire rolling, swaging and drawing
- Metal and ceramic powder consolidation
- Vanadium-encapsulated neutron dosimeters
- Metal and ceramic hot-pressing
- High-vacuum evaporation, plasma sputtering and ion beam sputtering to produce thin films and coatings
- Scanning electron microscopy with x-ray energy spectroscopy
- Crystal bar reduction processing (currently being restored).
Staff
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