Argentina's National Atomic Energy Commission (CNEA - Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica) and private technology company INVAP (from INVestigación APlicada - applied research) have held the first workshop focused on the design of a fission radioisotope production plant (PPRF). It is a support facility for the new RA-10 multipurpose reactor at the Ezeiza Atomic Centre.
The RA-10 – a 30 MWt open-pool research reactor – will be used for the production of medical radioisotopes and key research and training. It is based on the OPAL radioisotope production reactor that INVAP supplied to Australia in 2007. The RA-10 will replace the 10 MWt RA-3 reactor on the same site, which began operations in 1967.
The RA-10 will have a complex of associated facilities such as the Argentine Neutron Beam Laboratory (LAHN), the Laboratory for the Study of Irradiated Materials (LEMI) and the PPRF. It will also produce silicon doped by neutron transmutation, a raw material for the development of advanced electronic applications, and sources of industrial iridium. CNEA says that more than 80 companies in Argentina are involved in the work.
The purpose of the workshop was to execute the conceptual design of the PPRF to process on an industrial scale the targets that are irradiated in the RA-10 in order to obtain a sustained production of molybdenum-99, iodine-131 and even lutetium -177. CNEA said the PPRF Plus Project is strategic for Argentina enabling it to develop an export market for its radioisotopes. “This achievement will position our country on the same level as major producers of radioisotopes for health, such as plants in the Netherlands (Curium), Belgium (IRE), South Africa (NTP), Russia (Rosatom) and Australia (Ansto).”
The conclusion of the conceptual engineering review is scheduled for next July, opening the way for the basic engineering of the project. The technical team is made up of 18 experts and management personnel from both CNEA and INVAP.
Image: Visualisation of the fission radioisotope production plant (courtesy of CNEA/INVAP)
