Research reactors contributing to societal benefits - ¹³⁷Cs based blood irradiators Ku

Research reactors (RRs) in BARC have been the forerunners for the nuclear energy programme of the country. They are primarily meant to provide neutron source for research and applications in healthcare, neutron imaging, neutron activation studies, neutron scattering experiments etc. RRs have always been central to the production of radioisotopes of high specific activity. Apart from this, spent nuclear fuel from these reactors is a rich source of useful fission products such as ¹³⁷Cs, ⁹⁰Sr, ¹⁰6 etc. Technological advancements in back-end of nuclear fuel cycle, especially in the field of spent fuel reprocessing and radioactive waste management, has enabled selective recovery of these valuable radionuclides from waste and its deployment for societal applications, thereby redefining the nuclear waste as a material of resource. The high-level liquid waste (HLLW) generated from reprocessing of the spent fuel contains useful radioisotopes in significant quantities. Towards utilization of these radioisotopes, India has taken the lead role for their bulk scale recovery