Increasingly, more people are discovering the benefits of nuclear energy as an essential factor in the fight against climate change. But nuclear is much more than just electricity. Nuclear technology has other benefits that are not as well-known but have been important in the fight against COVID-19.
The industry’s wealth of material and human resources has been put to work to help Canada respond to the pandemic. Canada’s nuclear industry is home to some of the most incredible laboratories, equipment, and brain power. The industry is working collaboratively and has pivoted to redeploy R&D efforts, as well as rallying to donate protective equipment for frontline workers and maintain critical supply of isotopes to sterilize medical equipment.
Nuclear isotopes are used for imaging and therapies for a wide variety of medical conditions. There are over 40 million nuclear medicine procedures conducted each year — 36 million are diagnostic and four million are therapies.
Canada is a major supplier of the isotope Cobalt-60, which emits gamma rays essential for cancer treatments as well as for sterilization of medical devices. It is used in irradiation to sterilize items such as gowns, syringes, gloves and scalpels.
COVID-19 has increased the need for such protective items for front-line health care workers, making Canada’s Colbalt-60 supply an important asset in the global battle against the pandemic. Read more…
