Russia’s Smolensk NPP has fulfilled the 2024 cobalt-60 production plan ahead of schedule and has sent containers with the isotope to the Leningrad NPP for its final shipment to the customer. “The Smolensk NPP team have made a worthy contribution to solving the strategically important task of [nuclear utility] Rosenergoatom for the industrial production of radioisotopes and the early fulfilment of obligations in 2024 under one of the key contracts on the international market,” said Smolensk NPP Director Pavel Lubensky.
Industrial sources of ionising radiation based on the cobalt-60 isotope are widely used in various industries for sterilisation and disinfection of food products, medical tools and materials, modification of polymer products, disinfection and treatment of industrial effluents.
The technology for handling the radioisotope has been fully developed. Absorbers with cobalt-59 are inserted into a reactor plant and irradiated for five years. Then, in the reactor storage pools under a protective layer of water, the rods with irradiated cobalt are disassembled into units. These are placed in transport and packaging containers and sent by specialised transport in compliance with safety requirements to the Leningrad NPP. New starting material is loaded in place of the extracted isotope.
“In 2025, the Smolensk NPP will extract assemblies with material from the unit 3 reactor installation, completing the full unloading of the first batch of Co-60 rods loaded between 2017 and 2019,” said Viktor Timchenko, head of the radiation technology department at Smolensk NPP. “The plans for next year are to complete the loading of fresh absorbers into reactor plants with starting material for subsequent development of the isotope.”
In 2026, the Smolensk NPP will begin production of several medical isotopes – molybdenum-99, iodine-125, iodine-131, samaria-153 and luteation-177 – which are in demand for the production of radiopharmaceuticals. The RBMK reactors, which are operated at the Leningrad, Smolensk and Kursk NPPs, are especially suitable for the production of the Co-60 and other isotopes.
