Healthy society

In recent years, NRG has developed into the world’s second-largest supplier of medical isotopes. The institute is responsible for the production of over 30% of the worldwide demand for medical isotopes. These isotopes are used in diagnosis scans and therapeutic treatments such as cancer therapy and analgesia.

It is expected that the market for medical isotopes will grow strongly as a result of the significant ageing and greater life expectancy of the European population, and welfare improvements, particularly in developing countries.

Other than the HFR, only four other countries in the world possess good production facilities for medical isotopes. There are currently no real alternatives available for the five existing research reactors. This situation puts the availability of medical isotopes under great pressure, and demonstrates that there is a great need for reactor capacity for isotope production.

PALLAS helps meet this demand. The new research reactor is emphatically intended to contribute to a continuous availability of medical isotopes. Reliability of supply is a key concept.