Apartheid-era nukes turn into medicine
South Africa has transformed apartheid-era nuclear weapons into a
tool for detecting cancer and heart disease, with a new technology that
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 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 as used to
make nuclear arms, creating a headache 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." In July, Necsa delivered the first shipment of the new
moly to a distributor in the United States, which accounts for half of
the world's billion-dollar market for this kind of nuclear medicine.
The new technology is more expensive, but the United States has given
a 25-million-dollar grant to Necsa and its partner, the Australian
Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, to make more.
That doesn't mean drug distributors will be willing to pay the extra
price, but Necsa chief Rob Adams said Washington's worries about arms
trafficking could change that. "What we will be expecting is the
erection of some kind of tariff barrier which would make it not as
attractive to import molybdenum... derived from highly-enriched
uranium," he told AFP.
Jennifer Wagner, spokeswoman for the US National Nuclear Security
Administration, said Washington was pushing to impose deterrents against
moly made from highly-enriched uranium.
She said the NNSA "is working with the appropriate agencies to
discuss all of the possible options to ensure... incentives are
provided" for the new technology. AFP
|