Latest News

Filters

Filter by tags: International Atomic Energy Agency Research reactor Clear all tag filters

27 news articles found


Advances in emerging field of ‘theranostics’ are a game-changer Millions of patients around the globe rely on the regular and timely production of diagnostic and therapeutic isotopes produced in research reactors and accelerator facilities. Image courtesy IAEA. Advances in medical isotope diagnostics and therapy are holding promise for cancer patients, despite challenges facing the nuclear medical field in recent years related to radionuclide production and supply, rising costs, and stricter regulation.

Medical isotopes are radioactive substances used in various diagnostic and therapeutic procedures to treat various types of cancers and other conditions. They are essential for modern medicine, allowing physicians to visualise and target specific organs, tissues and cells in a patient’s body.

Over more than a decade, personalised medicine using nuclear techniques has been gaining pace, allowing doctors to tailor therapies and treatments to the specific needs and physiology of a patient, and to avoid harm to healthy organs or tissues.

According to Sven Van den Berghe, chief executive of Belgium-based isotope producer PanTera, one technique that has seen significant advances is known as theranostics – the term used to describe the combination of using one radioactive drug to diagnose and a second to deliver therapy to treat the main tumour and any metastatic tumours.

Date: Friday, 14 April 2023
Original article: nucnet.org/news/sector-aims-to-tackle-isotope-supply-problems-as-excitement-grows-over-targeted-therapies-4-4-2023

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has conducted its first Integrated Research Reactor Utilization Review (IRRUR) mission. An international team of experts carried out a thorough assessment of the way in which Chile's RECH-1 research reactor is currently being used and its potential capabilities.

Date: Thursday, 21 July 2022
Original article: world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/IAEA-team-assesses-utilisation-of-Chilean-research

Plant scheduled for full operation in 2023 Like many other research reactors, IVG.1M originally used highly enriched uranium. Courtesy NNC Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan has restarted its IVG.1M research reactor at the energy ministry’s National Nuclear Centre (NNC) near Kurchatov in the northeast of the country after it was adapted to use low-enriched uranium (LEU) fuel.

Like many other research reactors, IVG.1M originally used highly enriched uranium (HEU), which is considered a proliferation risk.

NNC said in a statement that in 2010 it began a project to convert the IVG.1M – which first operated in 1972 – to LEU. The goal was to reduce the enrichment level of the fuel to below 20% in accordance with International Atomic Energy Agency requirements, while “maintaining and improving” its characteristics.

Since 1978, international agreements supported by the IAEA have been signed by various countries operating research reactors to convert them to LEU fuel. In the early 2000s, Kazakhstan became one of these countries.

Date: Thursday, 12 May 2022
Original article: nucnet.org/news/ivg-1m-research-reactor-restarts-with-leu-fuel-5-3-2022

Of the 220 research reactors in operation today, only seven are on the African continent. In other words, with 17.2% of the world population and the strongest expected growth in the coming years, Africans have access to only 3% of the world's nuclear research reactor capacity. Marguerite Leonardi, senior advisor at NPC Consulting & Engineering, and Professor Vincent Lukanda Mwamba, Commissaire Général of the Commissariat Général à l’Energie Atomique, explain why that is a concern and why the research reactor in Kinshasa should be restarted urgently.

Date: Tuesday, 13 October 2020
Original article: world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/Viewpoint-Why-research-reactors-are-so-important-f

The LVR-15 research reactor in the Czech Republic. Photo courtesy CVR. An International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) team said the operator of the 10 MW LVR-15 research reactor in the Czech Republic has continued to improve safety since a previous review in 2003, implementing significant refurbishments to modernise the reactor’s systems and components.

The Integrated Safety Assessment for Research Reactors (INSARR) team also found areas for safety improvements, such as in organisational aspects and in operational safety programmes.

The team called for strengthening the organisational structure for operation by clarifying staff roles and responsibilities to avoid potential conflicts of duties and authorities.

It said the reactor’s ageing management programme should be broadened to include experimental devices, irradiation facilities, radiation monitoring systems and the reactor’s civil structures.

Date: Thursday, 27 August 2020
Original article: nucnet.org/news/iaea-says-safety-has-continued-to-improve-at-research-reactor-8-3-2020

Řež (CVR), the operator of the LVR-15 research reactor in the Czech Republic, has continued to improve safety since a previous review in 2003, implementing significant refurbishments to modernise the reactor's systems and components, according to an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) team of experts. The team also found areas for further safety enhancements, including in organisation and operational safety programmes.

Date: Thursday, 27 August 2020
Original article: world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/IAEA-sees-safety-improvements-at-Czech-research-re

The head of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran (AEOI), Ali Akbar Salehi, said on 8 April in a message marking National Nuclear Technology Day that Iran’s nuclear activities were continuing despite the novel coronavirus outbreak and continuing US sanctions.

Date: Wednesday, 15 April 2020
Original article: neimagazine.com/news/newsiran-pushes-ahead-with-nuclear-development-despite-pandemic-restrictions-7871976

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said that almost 3,500 kg of highly enriched uranium (HEU) have been removed from research reactors globally over the last decades, with the active support of the agency.

According to the IAEA, today experiments and research can be carried out using low enriched uranium (LEU), despite the fact that most research reactors were built in the 1960s and 1970s with technology that required HEU

“The international community has successfully provided technological solutions for converting HEU fuel to LEU fuel in research reactors,” said Thomas Hanlon, nuclear engineer expert at the IAEA.

Date: Wednesday, 26 February 2020
Original article: nucnet.org/news/agency-says-progress-made-globally-in-use-of-leu-for-research-2-2-2020

A campaign to move used highly enriched uranium (HEU) fuel from Canada to the USA, which began in 2015, has been completed a year ahead of schedule, the US Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) have announced.

Date: Friday, 14 February 2020
Original article: world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/Canada,-USA-complete-used-fuel-return