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Recycling old Radium into Cancer Drugs

17 February 2025
Following its discovery by Marie Skłodowska-Curie and Pierre Curie in 1898, radium has found numerous applications. <br /><br /> Radium-226, its longest-lived isotope, was routinely used in sealed and unsealed forms for cancer therapy. However, the decay products of this isotope present serious health risks, and, in the last 50 years, it has largely been replaced by other, more efficient or less hazardous radioactive sources. <br /><br /> (Photo: IAEA) To address the challenges presented by radium-226 – whose half-life is 1600 years – the IAEA launched the Global Radium-226 Management Initiative to promote the safe and effective management of legacy sources. <br /><br /> The initiative provides a platform through which countries with old stores of radium-226 sources can cooperate with countries that recycle them to create modern cancer treatments. <br /><br /> Over 65 countries are participating as holders of disused radium-226 sources, coordinating this legacy to be transferred to partners with advanced technology to recycle radium-226 and produce life-saving radioisotopes. (Photo: IAEA) Radium-226 was also used in brachytherapy throughout the 20th century to treat cancer, including in Fiji. Now, the island nation of nearly one million inhabitants is addressing the management of disused sealed sources generated as a result of activities decades ago. <br /><br /> Fiji joined the IAEA Global Radium-226 Management Initiative and requested IAEA support for the recovery of several sources from two barrels from the pictured site, and their preparation for transport abroad. (Photo: IAEA)In September 2024, following a request from the Government of Fiji, an IAEA expert mission was deployed to Suva through an ongoing IAEA technical cooperation programme to support the recovery and transport of approximately 205mg of radium-226, stored in two old steel barrels, shown here. <br /><br /> The IAEA team was joined by Fiji’s National Liaison Officer and an expert from Niowave, an American pharmaceutical company that specializes in the provision of radioisotopes. <br /><br /> The IAEA facilitated an agreement with Niowave through which the medical radioisotope company provided a transport container to deliver the sources to its premises in the United States of America for recycling. (Photo: IAEA) The barrels containing the disused radium sources had been stored for a decade at a Ministry of Health and Medical Services site. As the building lacked a roof, the steel drums were directly exposed to the elements and suffered extensive corrosion. However, the radioactive sources remained intact for safe recovery and re-packaging. Specialized equipment was deployed to assess the risk of exposure during the recovery operation, first, by measuring radiation levels on the surface of the steel drums. (Photo: IAEA) Here, the expert team safely removes the barrel lids and radiation shielding to verify the integrity of the capsules containing the radium-226 sources, conducting follow-up radiation measurements. (Photo: IAEA) On the third day of the mission, the repackaging operation began. The team carefully removed the capsules using special tools and transferred them into the Niowave transport container, pictured here. The experts then conducted a final measurement to confirm the absence of radioactive contamination in all areas and to verify that radiation levels on the external surface of the transport container did not pose health risks. (Photo: IAEA) The transport container was sent to a designated storage area managed by the Ministry of Health and Medical Services to await final shipment from Suva to Michigan, USA, where the radium-226 sources will be used as a feedstock for the production of actinium-225, an alpha-emitting isotope which is increasingly used in targeted cancer treatments. (Photo: Niowave) Actinium-225 is in high demand by oncology researchers and clinical teams due to its unique cancer-killing properties. But as an intermediary decay product whose half-life is only 10 days, the isotope is not found in nature. Currently, global production of actinium-225 is limited to 1.7 Curies annually, enough to treat approximately 2000 cancer patients. <br /><br /> By connecting countries in possession of radium-226 with those capable of producing actinium-225, the IAEA’s Global Radium-226 Management Initiative deals with disused sealed radioactive sources safely and simultaneously helps to increase the supply of actinium-225 for cancer treatment. (Photo: Niowave)

An IAEA expert mission was deployed to Suva, Fiji, to support the recovery and transportation of radium-226 to the USA, where the sources will be used as a feedstock to produce actinium-225, an alpha-emitting isotope which is increasingly used in targeted cancer treatments. IAEA supports countries in managing legacy radium-226 sources under the IAEA’s Global Radium Management Initiative.

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Last update: 17 February 2025

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