India’s state-owned Department of Atomic Energy announced that Cyclone-30, the country’s largest cyclotron in India’s eastern city of Kolkata, will produce medical radioisotopes and will also have dedicated beamlines for material science and nuclear physics research.
The machine’s accelerator’s beam has been used to produce fluorine-18 for the preparation of fluorodeoxyglucose, a radio-pharmaceutical used by India’s Board of Radiation and Isotope Technology. Regular production will start by the middle of 2019 after supporting nuclear systems are commissioned and regulatory clearances are effected.
Cyclone-30 will supply radioisotopes to meet the entire country’s needs, and will be able to export Germanium-68 and Palladium-103. Germanium-68 is used as the ‘parent’ isotope in Gallium-68 generators that are used in the diagnosis of breast cancer. Palladium-103 is used to treat prostate cancer.
