On January 30, 2024, the world's most powerful solution based medical isotope reactor developed by China National Nuclear Power Research and Design Institute began construction in Sichuan. This project is not only a vivid practice of CNNC actively implementing the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and closely serving the Healthy China strategy, but also a concrete action of CNNC adhering to the people-centered approach and actively promoting the process of Chinese style modernization.

In the next 42 months, the world's most powerful solution based medical isotope reactor developed by China Nuclear Power Research and Design Institute will begin construction in Sichuan. It is expected that this project will be completed and put into operation in 2027, which will not only promote the development of China's medical isotope and drug industry, but also create a new national business card for this field. In the early stages of the project, it will address some of the scarce isotope and drug needs in China and provide necessary supply to the market. With the progress of the project, it is expected that in the mid-term stage, it will basically meet the demand of the domestic market and achieve the localization of several new medical isotopes. The long-term goal is to achieve international leading level and completely solve the difficulties of domestic medical isotope shortage and nuclear medicine development.

The completion of this project will provide an important base for the global supply of medical isotopes and drugs, not only helping to reduce patient suffering, but also benefiting the general public. More importantly, through the implementation of this project, the price of medical isotope drugs in China is expected to decrease, allowing more people to use and afford them. Medical isotopes play a fundamental role in nuclear medicine diagnosis and treatment, and are widely used in the diagnosis and treatment of major diseases such as cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, malignant tumors, and neurodegeneration. However, due to the limited development of the medical isotope industry, the application level of nuclear medicine in China has always been unable to meet the needs of the domestic medical market, and the international market is also facing supply difficulties.

At present, the research and development of medical isotopes in China mainly relies on engineering research reactors, but due to these research reactors also undertaking other tasks, their ability to produce medical isotopes is limited. Faced with the continuously growing market demand, the limited production scale of reactors is clearly unable to meet it. Therefore, the construction of this project is particularly important and urgent.

After the medical isotope reactor is put into operation, it will have the ability to produce medical isotopes of molybdenum-99 and iodine-131 annually, reaching 100000 curies and 20000 curies respectively. This scale not only meets the current domestic market demand, but also brings a historic transformation from an importing country to an exporting country to our country. This means that domestic patients will be able to enjoy more stable and low-cost nuclear medicine services, no longer subject to price fluctuations in the international market. Editor/Cheng Liting