Canada’s Bruce Power NPP on 4 September placed medical-grade High Specific Activity (HSA) Cobalt rods into the unit 8 reactor during a planned maintenance inspection programme. All four units at the Bruce B NPP will now produce HSA Cobalt, which is used to treat brain tumours worldwide. The unit 8 maintenance outage is part of Bruce Power's life extension programme, which began in January 2016, and which will enable the site to operate until 2064. The programme remains on time and on budget, and includes Major Component Replacement Projects, which begin at unit 6 in 2020 and will see major investment upgrades to units 3-8.
“Bruce Power is to be commended for the role it plays in providing isotopes used to treat childhood and adolescent cancer, and for the leadership shown in helping form the Canadian Nuclear Isotope Council, which is exploring further medical isotope development,” said Neal Rourke, a member of Advocacy for Canadian Childhood Oncology Research Network (Ac2orn).
