Minister of Health Ernst Kuipers visits Urenco Stable Isotopes

On Wednesday the 15th of February Ernst Kuipers, Minister of Health, Wellbeing and Sports in the Netherlands, visited Urenco Stable Isotopes in Almelo.

Urenco produces raw materials (isotopes) for medical diagnoses and treatments. This is the first step in a chain to treat millions of patients a year with nuclear medicine. It is unique that the Netherlands facilitates all steps in the production chain of nuclear medicines. A number of key products go to Petten to be turned into nuclear medicines. Thanks to the arrival of the Pallas reactor, the new medical isotop reactor, this route will remain available in the future. Other isotopes from Urenco go to cyclotrons in hospitals.

Arjan Bos heads the department that produces the medical isotopes and explained the various applications to the minister. For instance, the isotope Iridium is the raw material for brachytherapy: radioactive seeds that treat tumours very locally: "The minister immediately recognised this application and said he had worked with it during his time at the Erasmus Medical Centre. Another application, for example, is Xenon for making razor-sharp mri scans of lungs." "We see tremendous growth in the demand for our isotopes," Bos said. "There are more and more applications and treatments coming up. This means for us that we continue to innovate and expand in capacity. In doing so, it is important that we maintain a robust supply chain that can function independently."

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