Mo-99 Ready To Be Produced At Darlington NPP

The Darlington Nuclear Power Plant, located in Canada and operated by Ontario Power Generation (OPG), is now ready to produce life-saving Molybdenum-99 (Mo-99) isotopes, Laurentis Energy Partners and BWXT Medical Ltd announced last week.

Thanks to the installation and initial commissioning of an innovative isotope system made by the two companies, the production of Mo-99 at Darlington will be a world-first for a commercial power reactor.

With the necessary equipment now installed, the team will continue with planned commissioning and preparation activities for commercial production of Mo-99, pending completion of validation runs and approval from the US and Canadian Health Authorities.

Molybdenum-99 (Mo-99) is the most widely used radioisotope in nuclear medicine for diagnosis.

Indeed, Mo-99 is the source of the major diagnostic radioisotope Technetium-99m, which is used to detect cancer, heart disease and other illnesses.

Because of the unique design of Darlington’s CANDU reactors, medical isotopes can be produced without interrupting the generation of clean energy.