Bruce Power is ensuring there will not be a shortage of a medical isotope used to treat brain tumours.
The company recently harvested cobalt-60 during an outage of its Unit 5 reactor, which is used in the sterilization of medical equipment.
Vice President of Corporate Affairs James Scongack says in addition to reloading the reactor with cobalt-59, which becomes cobalt-60 while it's in the reactor, they also loaded four rods of high specific activity cobalt, which is used as part of an alternative treatment to traditional brain cancer surgery.
Scongack says cobalt processor Nordion had been facing a global shortage of the specialized cobalt because it has traditionally been harvested from the reactor at Chalk River Laboratories, but it's scheduled to be shut down next year.
"We load [cobalt] in during these outages, and we harvest it in a few years, so the good news is we're going to be harvesting in 2019, which is exactly the same time when Chalk River reaches its end-of-life," says Scongack.
He says it's the second Bruce Power reactor that will produce the high specific activity cobalt, and will ensure there's a steady supply available to treat brain cancer patients.
Scongack explains it's a less invasive procedure with a specialized knife, using microscopic beams to target a tumour, while minimizing damage to healthy tissue.
In addition to the HSA-cobalt, Scongack says Bruce Power will continue to produce about 35% of the global supply of cobalt-60.
