A project is underway to convert legacy nuclear material now stored at U.S. Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) into rare medical isotopes for the treatment of various cancers.

Isotek Systems, TerraPower, Cardinal Health Nuclear & Precision Health Solutions, and the U.S. Department of Energy are partnering in the effort to eliminate an inventory of 1950s era uranium-233 nuclear material while producing the isotopes for targeted therapy treatments.

Since 2018, Isotek Systems has been extracting the rare medical isotope thorium-229 for TerraPower Isotopes, a subsidiary of TerraPower, to advance promising cancer treatment research. This process is facilitated by use of gloveboxes that enable engineers to process uranium canisters with lower levels of radiation. Additional equipment installed by Isotek Systems for the project includes a cell portal to make material entry easier, cutting tools to open the uranium-233 storage canisters, pumping systems for chemicals, filtration systems to extract the thorium, and remote manipulators.

TerraPower signed a collaboration agreement with Cardinal Health Nuclear & Precision Health Solutions in 2021 to produce and distribute TerraPower's actinium-225 product, which is generated using the thorium-229 extracted at ORNL. Actinium-225 will be used in drug trials involving targeted therapy for diseases such as breast, prostate, colon and neuroendocrine cancers as well as melanoma and lymphoma.

Currently there are only 4,000 doses of these targeted alpha therapies available worldwide. The uranium-233 disposition effort provides scope to supply 500,000 treatment doses annually.