Not only does nuclear power serve the community with producing clean, safe, and reliable power for the United States, but the nuclear industry is continuously looking for opportunities to improve the quality of life for U.S. citizens! On Tuesday, January 19, 2010, Exelon Nuclear and GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH) announced a partnership to pilot the production of cobalt-60 which will be used in the treatment of certain cancers, the sterilization of medical devices (syringes, bandages, etc.), and for the decontamination and preservation of food and cosmetics (also known as irradiation). Clinton Power Station, located in Clinton, IL, will serve as the project’s host facility and is looking forward to providing enough cobalt-60 for approximately 300,000 cancer treatments once the pilot project is complete. This project is essential to secure future U.S. cobalt-60 supplies due to the dwindling supplies from Canada, Argentina and Russia (Exelon Nuclear).
On Friday, January, 15, 2010, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) approved a license amendment that permits the station to participate in the pilot project and the rods will be placed into the Clinton reactor during its current planned maintenance and refueling outage. The cobalt-60 production will not affect the plant’s ability to safely produce electricity and the safe production of electricity is always the industries first priority (Exelon Nuclear).
The Science Behind the Project
The cobalt-59 rods will be inserted into the Clinton reactor and will remain in place for four to six years. During this period of time, the cobalt-59 atoms will pick up an extra neutron and become cobalt-60.
The first cobalt-60 shipment from Clinton Power Station will contain only one rod and will be shipped to a GEH processing facility in 2012. “The highly secure shipments are regulated by the NRC and the Department of Homeland Security and tracked through the NRC’s National Source Tracking System” (Exelon Nuclear). Once the shipment arrives at a GEH facility, GEH will then process, transport, and sell the cobalt-60 to the medical and food sterilization industries. It is estimated that the first supply of cobalt-60 from the project will be available for commercial use in 2014 (Exelon Nuclear).
The nuclear industry is looking forward to supporting these partnerships to help save lives and better the quality of life for American citizens.
Clinton Power Station, Clinton, IL (Photo Courtesy of Exelon Nuclear)
Reference:
Exelon Nuclear. Communications. Exelon and GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy Partner on Pilot to Produce Compound Used in Medical and Food Industries. Warrenville, IL: Exelon Nuclear, 2001. Print
