BR2 Research Reactor Sets A New Production Record, Helping 13 Million Patients in 2025
The Belgian Nuclear Research Centre SCK CEN (ENS Corporate Member) announced that the production of medical radioisotopes at its BR2 research reactor supported 13 million patients worldwide in 2025, setting a new record in the facility’s history.
“It shows that we can scale up depending on medical needs and have the capacity to help even more patients each year,”
said Steven Van Dyck, Director of the BR2 research reactor.
Medical radioisotopes produced at BR2 are used in nuclear medicine to diagnose and treat diseases such as cancer and cardiovascular conditions. Because many isotopes decay rapidly, hospitals cannot stockpile them, making reliable and continuous production essential.
Today, demand for medical isotopes continues to grow as new therapies, notably radioligand therapies, emerge as a promising approach to treating diseases such as metastatic prostate cancer and neuroendocrine tumours by delivering radioactive isotopes directly to tumour cells.
To meet this increasing demand, SCK CEN expanded BR2’s operating schedule in 2020 from 160 to 210 days per year and has continued to modernise the facility through recent renovation and maintenance activities aimed at extending its operational lifetime.
Read the full SCK CEN Press Release.
Operational since 1962, the BR2 reactor in Mol, Belgium, is one of the most powerful material testing reactors in the world and plays a major role in the global supply of medical radioisotopes. The facility typically produces between 10 and 15 different radioisotopes during each operating cycle.
Among the radioisotopes produced at BR2, molybdenum-99 plays a key role in nuclear medicine diagnostics, as it decays into technetium-99m, the most widely used isotope for medical imaging.
The importance and the potential of radiopharmaceuticals, especially in Europe, are also addressed in the latest briefing paper published by ENS.
