The Vancouver-based national laboratory for particle and nuclear physics is one step closer to procuring a new machine capable of producing medical isotopes following a $5.5-mllion investment from the federal government.
Ottawa announced May 30 the money granted to the TRIUMF facility at the University of B.C. would go toward funding a new TR-24 cyclotron and developing the Institute for Accelerator-based Medical Isotopes (IAMI).
TRIUMF is already home to the world’s largest cycltron, a machine powered by electricity and magnets to produce accelerator-based medical isotopes as opposed reactor-based medical isotopes.
The government estimates the IAMI will generate about $20 million in direct and indirect economic spinoffs over the next decade.
