Petten HFR Will Produce Medical Isotopes Only With LEU

The High Flux Reactor in Petten, operated by NRG, from now on produces only medical isotopes with low-enriched uranium (LEU).

Until recently, the productions for NRG’s Belgian partner IRE were still based on high-enriched uranium, because IRE could not fully process low-enriched uranium.

But now IRE has, partially, converted its chemical process to low-enriched uranium. This means that NRG can take the final step and end using high-enriched uranium in the HFR.

Every day, 30,000 patients are helped with medical isotopes from the reactor in Petten. In 2006, the reactor switched from high-enriched to low-enriched fuel. In 2018, NRG and Curium also converted the molybdenum-99 production process in the Petten Molybdenum Production Facility (MPF) to low-enriched uranium.

Read the full NRG Press Release.