Bruce Power and its partners are marking one year of producing its cancer-fighting medical isotope.
The energy company and it partners Isogen, ITM, and Saugeen Ojibway Nation started supplying Lutetium-177 across the globe in 2022 as a way to detect and treat cancer.
Chief Development Officer and Executive Vice-President of Operational Services James Scongack says, “for patients and families that are challenged with certain types of tumours or prostate cancer, Lutetium is an important medical isotope to really give those patients and those families some hope of a better outcome.”
While not able to quantify how much Bruce Power was able to produce in one year, Scongack says the company has produced an overwhelming majority of the global demand for the isotope.
“On a typical weekly basis on average, we would easily be over 1,000 patients,” says Scongack. “It is an emerging isotope that will be used for a lot more cancer treatments than it is today.”
He says they currently have a partnership where they produce the isotope, it is shipped to McMaster University in Hamilton where some initial processing is carried out, before it is distributed to hospitals across the globe.
He says what started Bruce Power’s production of the isotope was the goal to carry on Canada’s reputation in the medical field.
“It was important for Bruce Power as Canada’s only private sector nuclear generator to say how do we continue that Canadian leadership, and that is really what this partnership has been all about. We have been able to develop a very innovative system on our reactors here at Bruce Power that will allow us to utilize the reactor to not just produce electricity, but produce medical isotopes,” says Scongack.
He says moving forward, they aim to scale up production of medical isotopes, adding it is not unrealistic to think by the end of the 2030s, all of their units are producing Lutetium or other types of isotopes.
CNIC event in Toronto with Empire Club. James Scongack speaking. Meeting Ontario Premier Doug Ford at Queen’s Park. MPP Jess Dixon gives appreciation remarks. (Photo provided by John Peevers)
Bruce Power has recently implemented with its partners the first of a phased approach to expand the capacity of unit seven’s production of the medial isotope, which will be fully realized next year.
“With more people having access to modern cancer treatments, also means there is going to be an increase in demand for isotopes. Bruce Power is going to be the world leader in making sure there is a reliable supply,” says Scongack.
