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<h2>Isotope Production</h2> <p>Producing isotopes for use in medicine was a field pioneered in Canada. In 1947, the NRX reactor enabled isotope production on a scale never known in the world before. As a result two hospitals in Saskatchewan and Ontario became the first to apply radioactive cobalt to the treatment of cancer, a technique now widely used around the world. Today NRU produces the high activity cobalt used in many radiotherapy machines.</p> <p>The range of isotopes produced in NRU are sold across Canada and internationally by MDS Nordion, the world's largest medical isotope supplier.</p> <p>Isotopes are produced in NRU in two ways.</p> <p>Within the core of a nuclear reactor there are a billion neutrons in each cubic centimetre. If a sample piece of material is inserted into the core and left for a period of time, the atoms within that sample may capture some of those free neutrons. When an atom captures a neutron it does not change into another element but it does get heavier. It is an isotope: a heavier version of the same element. So the presence of large numbers of free neutrons in a reactor core can be used to produce isotopes.</p> <p>The second process that produces isotopes in a reactor, is fission. The fuel in NRU is uranium. Uranium-235 captures a neutron, becomes unstable and breaks apart. That process is called fission. The two halves of the original uranium atom are now lighter atoms. They are however not stable, but unstable isotopes of lighter elements such as barium, krypton, molybdenum or many others. Those isotopes can be isolated and used in medical applications.</p>
