A nuclear physics lab in Vancouver has received $62.9 million to build a particle beam accelerator to produce isotopes for medicinal applications.
The provincial government provided $30.7 million to build the lab, it was announced Tuesday.
The accelerator will be built by TRIUMF, which is one of the world’s leading subatomic physics labs located at the University of British Columbia.
The money, in conjunction with $14.4 million from TRIUMF and its partners and $17.8 million from the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, will be used to support a project known as the Advanced Rare Isotope Laboratory, or ARIEL.
“B.C. has a well-earned international reputation for its contributions to nuclear medicine, which saves lives by detecting and treating cancer and heart disease,” said B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell at the announcement in Vancouver. “Our latest investment in TRIUMF will provide the tools to demonstrate one new way to produce the radio isotopes needed by doctors and patients everywhere.”
Medical isotopes can be used to scan patients for cancer and heart ailments. They became the talk of Canada last year after Ontario’s Chalk River reactor, which produced the isotopes, closed due to a heavy-water leak.
BIV reported on Vancouver’s growing isotope industry last fall when local firms were looking to U.S. subsidies to fund new production facilities (See “Locals peddle isotope expertise in United States” – issue 1047, Nov. 17-23, 2009).
TRIUMF said ARIEL would produce intense particle beams to create isotopes of chemical elements, which could also be studied to reduce fertilizer runoff, improve efficiency at paper mills and remove pollutants from coal-fired plants.
Iain Black, B.C.'s technology and small business minister, said the project would result in 160 new jobs.