Projectile fusion reactor could generate much-needed medical isotopes

Amazing stuff!

Presumably, medical isotopes for cancer treatment will only be a short lived episode in the history of medicine.

"... “The neutrons produced by fusion are high energy, and the flux is also very high. This means that there is a very wide scope for isotope production with fusion as the neutron source,” ... “We can in theory create a large range of different isotopes, including Mo-99.” The team has also studied isotopes used for cancer treatments, including copper-67, samarium-153, lutetium-177 and yttrium-90. ...

First Light continues to work closely with IDOM on the design of its reactor chamber and the development of Machine 4, which will be housed in a purpose-built facility at the UK Atomic Energy Authority’s Culham Campus in Oxfordshire. Construction is anticipated to begin next year, with operations likely to commence in 2027. “Once the system is performing high-yield shots, this may give us an opportunity to test the isotope production as a proof of principle,” ...

First Light is not the only company exploiting fusion to create medical isotopes. SHINE Technologies of the US is using its fusion technology to produce the therapeutic isotope lutetium-177 (Lu-177). SHINE made its first commercial sales of Lu-177 in 2020 and recently opened the largest Lu-177 production facility in North America at its headquarters in Janesville, WI. The company is also currently constructing a fusion-driven medical isotope production facility, the Chrysalis, to produce Mo-99. Medical isotope production is Phase 2 of SHINE’s four-phase roadmap towards generating fusion energy. ..."

Projectile fusion reactor could generate much-needed medical isotopes – Physics World

Deuterium modified drugs

Amazing stuff!

Apparently, this is not a new development. See e.g. FORMULATION DEVELOPMENT – Deuterium Modification as a New Branch of Medicinal Chemistry to Develop Novel, Highly Differentiated Drugs (dated July/August 2012)

"Drugs made with deuterium take advantage of the fact that it’s harder to remove a deuterium from a carbon than it is to remove a hydrogen. Enzymes in the body’s metabolism often start degrading drugs by cleaving off their hydrogens. Because deuteriums are harder to pick off, the drugs could remain intact longer." 

"The company generated pre-clinical validation of DO-2, a novel, highly selective, brain penetrant deuterated MET kinase and RAS pathway inhibitor.  ... initial idea for the use of deuteration as a means to modulate metabolic properties of the parent drug ..."

"An investigational JAK 1/2 inhibitor for alopecia areata Concert Pharmaceuticals is developing deuruxolitinib , an oral inhibitor of Janus kinases JAK1 and JAK2, as a potential treatment for alopecia areata. ... Deuruxolitinib is a deuterium-modified JAK 1/2 inhibitor. ..."

Deuterium drugs attract investment

DeuterOncology

DEURUXOLITINIB (CTP-543)

Nuclear Fusion Generates Medical Isotopes Not Energy

Very recommendable! So nuclear fusion can be used to produce medical isotopes! When will we finally develop nuclear fusion to produce energy?

“Nuclear technology companies Phoenix and SHINE Medical Technologies have achieved a new world record for a nuclear fusion reaction in a steady-state system, the strongest of its kind ever produced on Earth.”

“The companies have also performed a 132-hr test run on the neutron generator, which demonstrated more than 99% uptime. These successful tests validate the performance and reliability of the Phoenix neutron generator technology and confirm its status as a “steady-state system” than can operate at high output for long stretches of time. This sets it apart from other high output fusion systems, which have only operated in a pulsed mode over short durations.”

You only wish this could be done for energy generation through nuclear fusion!

Article:

Record breaking fusion reaction could transform medical isotope production (10/4/2019)