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Reimagining nuclear materials for the future of medicine
Nuclear medicine has come a long way since Henri Becquerel first observed the penetrating energy of radioactive materials in 1896. Today, technetium-99m alone is used in more than 40 million diagnostic procedures every year—from cardiovascular imaging and bone scans to cancer detection—making it the undisputed workhorse of nuclear medicine. That single statistic tells you something important: An enormous portion of modern diagnostic medicine rests on a surprisingly narrow foundation, one built around a small number of aging research reactors that were never originally designed for continuous isotope production.
Koichi Okuno (Hazama-Ando Technical Research Institute), Ken-ichi Kimura (Fujita Corp.), Mikihiro Nakata (MHI Nuclear Development Co.), Tomohiro Ogata (Mitsubishi Heavy Industries), Yukio Sakamoto (Atox Co.), Erina Matsuyama (Toshiba Energy Systems and Solutions ), Masahiro Taniguchi (Taisei Corp.), Ken-ichi Tanaka (Institute of Applied Energy), Koji Oishi (Japan Environment Research Co.), Satoshi Takeo (Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy), Satoshi Ishikawa (ITOCHU Techono-Solutions Corp.), Hidenori Kawano (Atox Co.), Masahiro Yoshida (Nuclear Safety Technology Center), Toshio Amano (ITOCHU Techono-Solutions Corp.), Kazuaki Kosako (Shimizu Corp.), Yoshihiro Hirao (National Maritime Research Institute), Toshinobu Maenaka (Takenaka Corp.)
Proceedings | ICRS 14/RPSD 2022 | Seattle, WA, September 25-29, 2022 | Pages 153-155