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ICAN: Highly enriched uranium (HEU) in radiopharmaceutical production

Ending reactor-based radiopharmaceutical production:
How to close a vulnerable proliferation pathway


"How many doctors are aware that they contribute to a nuclear proliferation
and terrorist risk every time they order a nuclear bone or lung
scan, or other procedure utilising an isotope produced using HEU,
directly usable in a nuclear weapon? Almost certainly very few. How
many of the patients involved are aware of this? Probably even fewer."

---Tilman Ruff, Bill Williams, IPPNW doctors writing about HEU in
Medicine, Conflict and Survival in 2007

Nuclear weapons alone have the capacity to exterminate much of the human population and severely damage most ecosystems in the space of a few short hours. Creating a world without nuclear weapons is IPPNW's most important goal, and is the reason we launched ICAN — the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.

While it may seem like a small matter compared with the task of eliminating some 25,000 nuclear weapons from the world's arsenals, the medical profession has had a proliferation problem in its own backyard.

Radioisotopes used in diagnostic medical procedures have often been derived from highly enriched uranium (HEU), which is used to fuel plutonium and tritium production for nuclear weapons. This situation is changing rapidly, due in part to the role of health care professionals in pressing for effective, non-HEU-based alternatives.

Health care professionals have a continuing obligation to complete the phase-out of medical commerce in HEU and so terminate one of the most vulnerable pathways to the much-feared "terrorist bomb." Fortunately, there are no technical obstacles to converting to low-enriched uranium (LEU) sources for these radiopharmaceuticals. No new LEU needs to be produced, as existing supplies are more than sufficient. Moreover, it now appears possible to manufacture radiopharmaceuticals using non-reactor-based technologies, which would enable the industry to eliminate both HEU and LEU from the production process.

Since 2007, when IPPNW and its affiliates began pressuring national governments and the industry to eliminate this proliferation risk, we have seen the following positive developments:

  1. The US National Academy of Sciences published a report in 2008 concluding that medical isotope production did not require the use of HEU, and the US is now establishing production based solely on LEU [website];
  2. Canada abandoned plans for new Maple reactors using HEU and in 2010 appropriated $35 million for R&D for accelerator-based isotope production [website];
  3. President Obama committed the US to remove HEU from civilian applications and presided over a Nuclear Security Summit in April 2010. The Summit produced a workplan with the following item related to HEU and medical isotopes:  "Participating States, as appropriate, will collaborate to research and develop new technologies that require neither highly enriched uranium fuels for reactor operation nor highly enriched uranium targets for producing medical or other isotopes, and will encourage the use of low enriched uranium and other proliferation-resistant technologies and fuels in various commercial applications such as isotope production." [PDF]
  4. Several producers, notably in South Africa, began shifting to LEU; South Africa, which had long resisted conversion away from HEU, completed the transition in 2010 in less than two years, with help from Argonne National Laboratories, demonstrating how there are no major technical obstacles to conversion from HEU to LEU;
  5. The Open Pool Australian Lightwater (OPAL) reactor seems to be producing radioisotopes for medical and industrial applications reasonably consistently after substantial initial delays and technical problems [website];
  6. Japan has increased investments in new LEU production capacity.
  7. European production using HEU is the main concern today; in Poland, for example, new HEU production reactors are being utilized despite the movement away from them elsewhere in the world.

IPPNW has pursued a medical education and advocacy strategy with the following objectives:

  1. To educate colleagues about the dangers and risks of HEU in medical isotope production and the existence of alternatives;
  2. To encourage clinicians to ask nuclear medicine providers where their isotopes come from, and urge a non-HEU source whenever possible;
  3. To optimize the use of alternative imaging technologies;
  4. To promote research and development of non-reactor-produced isotopes;
  5. To promote medical association and government policies encouraging elimination of HEU.

Help IPPNW eliminate HEU from nuclear medicine

Use the links below to download resources that can help you learn more about the problem of HEU and medical isotope production. Then present the facts to your local and national medical associations, and ask them to pass a resolution endorsing the conversion policy recommended by IPPNW and a wide range of medical and proliferation experts.

Resources

For more information about the medical and humanitarian dangers of nuclear weapons and the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) contact John Loretz, Program Director, IPPNW, 66-70 Union Square, #204, Somerville, MA 02143; 617.440.1733, ext. 280.