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![Seeing the difference Ac-225 could make to cancer patients made Raina Setzer want to come to ORNL to directly work with the isotope. Credit: Allison Peacock/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-11/rs_0.jpg?h=71976bb4&itok=nFsgqwUT)
Raina Setzer knows the work she does matters. That’s because she’s already seen it from the other side. Setzer, a radiochemical processing technician in Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Isotope Processing and Manufacturing Division, joined the lab in June 2023.
![Plutonium oxide is loaded onto a truck for shipping. Adam Parkison/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-09/PXL_20230620_120836896_0.jpg?h=2848f5af&itok=Nh31DLuy)
In June, ORNL hit a milestone not seen in more than three decades: producing a production-quality amount of plutonium-238
![Sandra Davern performs cell based assays to evaluate cell death and DNA damage in response to radiation in order to gain a better understanding of how radioisotope nanoparticles affect the human body.](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-10/2020-P15712.jpg?h=036a71b7&itok=6cpxN4v2)
When Sandra Davern looks to the future, she sees individualized isotopes sent into the body with a specific target: cancer cells.