China has started the mass production of carbon-14 at a commercial nuclear reactor, according to the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC). The carbon-14 isotope (C-14) was produced by the Qinshan NPP in Zhejiang province, which is operated by a CNNC subsidiary, Qinshan plant general manager Shang Xianhe told Xinhua, according to the Chinese State Council Information Office. “It is expected that about 150 curies of carbon-14 isotopes can be produced annually,” said Shang. He expects that C-14 output should be able to "completely meet the market demand" of China ending China’s near-total reliance on imports of the isotope.

According to the state-run China Science Daily, China has been almost totally dependent on imports of C-14 from Canada, South Africa, Australia and Russia among other countries. Supplies of C-14 from Canada were cut in 2009 when the world’s largest supplier, Canada’s National Research Universal reactor, ceased production after a leak was detected. The reactor resumed production a year later.

Qinshan NPP comprises seven reactors. Construction of Phase I – a 300 MWe pressurised water reactor (PWR), the first indigenously-designed Chinese NPP, began in 1985, and it began operation in 1994. Qinshan Phase II comprises four operating CNP-600 PWRs, built with a high degree of localisation which began operating in 2002, 2004, 2010 and 2021. Phase III, comprising two 750 MWe pressurised heavy water reactors (PHWRs) supplied by Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd were commissioned in 2002 and 2003. It is the PHWRs that are used to produce the C-14.

CNNC said the Qinshan plant teamed up with a number of institutions including the Shanghai Nuclear Engineering Research and Design Institute to realise the mass production plan. The project was launched in 2019 to demonstrate its feasibility, and the first commercial production of carbon-14 was in April 2022. In June 2021, the China Atomic Energy Authority, together with various ministries, launched a plan to produce medical isotopes in China to stabilise and ensure supplies.

According to CNNC, the carbon-14 isotope will go on the market this year. "This will effectively promote the development of China's isotope application industry chain and further establish and improve industry-university-research cooperation to develop commercial reactors. The research and development system for irradiation-produced isotopes promotes and drives the research and development of high-tech nuclear drugs and nuclear medicine industries by downstream medical enterprises, providing strong support for the development of the domestic isotope application industry." In addition, the Qinshan plant is simultaneously installing an advanced irradiation isotope production facility that will be able to produce isotopes such as lutetium-177 and yttrium-90, which are also used in medicine.

Image: Qinshan nuclear power plant (courtesy of CNNC)