Belgium’s PanTera has broken ground for its Actinium Production Centre (APC), a state-of-the-art facility intended to play a key role in the global supply of actinium-225 (Ac-225), an isotope for targeted alpha therapy in cancer treatment.
Earlier this year, PanTera obtained all required nuclear and environmental permits, paving the way to launch construction of the APC. It will use PanTera’s proprietary production process, which relies on the irradiation of radium-226 (Ra-226) with high-energy gamma beam to generate Ac-225.
Construction of the APC will be led by the Wisico consortium, comprising Willemen, Cordeel, SPIE, and Imtech, based on designs developed by Tractebel and Modulo. The building is scheduled to become operational in 2028, with the first commercial supply of Ac-225 expected in 2029. At full capacity, the APC will be capable of producing hundreds of curies of Ac-225 annually
“This groundbreaking represents more than just the start of construction. It symbolises PanTera’s commitment to enabling the future of cancer therapy,” said PanTera CEO Sven Van den Berghe. “With the APC, we will unlock large-scale and sustainable production of Ac-225, providing the reliability that the medical community urgently needs.”
PanTera originated as a joint venture between IBA and SCK CEN, to secure large-scale production of actinium-225. PanTera’s production strategy is built on two complementary approaches: an Early Supply production leveraging Thorium-229 decay, which will provide Ac-225 as early as 2025, and a Commercial Supply production utilising the Ra-226 photonuclear reaction to enable large-scale commercial production by 2028.
