DOE, NIST recover Ra-226 for isotope supply

The U.S. Department of Energy and the Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology have recovered radium-226 from obsolete materials stored as radiological waste at NIST facilities.

DOE’s Office of Isotope R&D and Production said the recovered material will support medical radioisotope production for cancer therapies. The work is part of a broader effort to identify, recover, and repurpose legacy Ra-226 inventories from domestic and international sources.

NIST previously maintained radium-226 sources as part of its role in U.S. radioactivity standards. DOE said Ra-226 brachytherapy sources were once used to treat localized cancers, but have since been replaced by modern brachytherapy isotopes and external radiation technologies.

Recovered Ra-226 can be converted through reactors or cyclotrons into actinium-225, actinium-227, and thorium-228, according to DOE. Actinium-225 is used in targeted alpha therapy, while actinium-227 decays to radium-223, and thorium-228 can decay into a radium-224/lead-212 generator.

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory developed technical capabilities for material handling, packaging, and transport of the NIST Ra-226. PNNL said the recovered material has been transferred to the laboratory for processing and use as feedstock.

PNNL also developed a Type A shipping cask and special form capsule to support safe recovery and transport of Ra-226 from U.S. and international sites. The process is intended to support future recovery, purification, dispensing, and shipment through DOE’s National Isotope Development Center.

DOE said NIST has also focused on radioactivity measurement standards for lead-212, radium-223, radium-224, and actinium-225 over the past 5 years. Those standards support isotope measurement in clinical applications and recovery efforts.