Production of key radioisotopes continues at ORNL

OAK RIDGE - Production of radioisotopes, a signature mission at Oak Ridge National Laboratory since the 1940s, is making a comeback of sorts.

Last year, there was virtually no money available for the work at ORNL while the government's isotopes program was reviewed and reorganized at Department of Energy headquarters in Washington. Production of some radioactive elements - notably californium-252, which was in short supply - got put on hold in Oak Ridge during a situation that some characterized as a bureaucratic crisis.

As 2009 came to a close, however, the supply of californium, a radioisotope with uses ranging from oil exploration and startup of nuclear reactors to radiation scans that can detect flaws in the exterior surfaces of airplanes, is reportedly in good shape. Things appear to have stabilized at the Oak Ridge lab.

Jeff Binder, the new manager of ORNL's isotope program, said seven "targets" were removed from the lab's High Flux Isotope Reactor earlier this year following a long incubation period in the reactor's nuclear core. Those highly radioactive targets were processed in nearby hot cells to extract the californium-252, a valuable neutron-emitter that also has potential in medical therapies.

From Frank Munger's Atomic City Blog
http://blogs.knoxnews.com/munger/

1 posted on 01/03/2010 7:16:45 AM PST by HangnJudge