Research and commercial isotope production at TRIUMF

The environment present at commercial facilities for the production of radioisotopes is usually unsuited to that required for truly innovative and cutting-edge research. At TRIUMF, however, a unique relationship exists between a federal research laboratory (TRIUMF) and a commercial producer of radioisotopes (MDS Nordion Inc.) that does allow for both of these aspects. In this partnership, the main role of TRIUMF is to operate the commercial compact cyclotrons and the associated targetry and to produce radioisotopes on the large 520-MeV main cyclotron. MDS Nordion subsequently processes and distributes the radioactive products to customers. TRIUMF's expertise in cyclotron and targetry technology is constantly being applied to improve the existing isotope production systems. Completely new cyclotron and targetry systems have also been developed for commercial radioisotope production, such as the TR30 cyclotron and its upgrade and the universal encapsulated target system for isotope production