S. African innovation fuels nuclear medicine safely

South Africa has uncovered a new way to power vital nuclear medical technologies without using weapons-grade uranium, which could ease global worries about nuclear arms trafficking.

After voluntarily dismantling its weapons programme, democratic South Africa used the leftover nuclear fuel to produce medical isotopes, which are used by doctors for imaging technology.

South Africa is one of the world's top three producers of molybdenum-99, better known as moly, used in 80 percent of the 50 million nuclear medical procedures performed globally each year.

Normally, moly is created with the same type of uranium used to make nuclear arms, creating a problem for efforts to corral weapons-grade uranium.

But a new technique designed by the South African Nuclear Energy Corporation (Necsa) allows scientists to create moly using low-enriched uranium, rather than the highly enriched type needed for bombs.

"This is very exciting," said Mike Sathekge, chief of nuclear medicine at the University of Pretoria. "This is envisaged to have a huge impact." ...

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