The nuclear option
Using radioisotopes to image inside patients’ bodies – nuclear medicine – is under threat from ageing reactors. James Mitchell Crow discovers the new science trying to fix the problem
Technetium-99m is used all over the world for medical imaging, even though it has a half-life of just six hours and must be produced in nuclear reactors. With some of those reactors reaching the end of their lifespans, chemists are working against the clock to find new radioisopes to take Tc-99m’s place