Serva Energy Discovered New Way to Produce Ac-225 Isotope

Serva Energy, a nuclear innovation company established in Arizona, USA, has developed a new production method to ramp up the supply of Actinium-225. The milestone marks the first time a commercial entity has employed a conventional nuclear reactor to produce the life-saving isotope—allowing for dozens of existing research reactors around the world to collaborate with Serva Energy on increasing production of Actinium-225 without huge capital investments or delays for construction.

Actinium-225 is a cancer-killing isotope in ultra-high demand by oncology researchers and pharmaceutical companies developing Targeted Alpha Therapies (TAT). It delivers an extremely localized therapeutic dose of alpha radiation to cancer cells with little to no harm to nearby healthy tissue.

“Targeted Alpha Therapies are the next generation of therapeutic radiopharmaceutical products. To facilitate the development and use of these novel treatments, it is critical that the supply chain of alpha emitting isotopes, such as Actinium-225, be improved to support multiple commercial application”, – said Dr. Horn, who specializes in radiochemistry and radiopharmaceuticals.

With the support from the U.S. Department of Energy Isotope Program, which provided the Radium-226 seed material, Serva Energy, using proprietary materials and process technology, produced several initial batches of Actinium-225. Radium-226 relates to the highly restricted nuclear waste but has the potential to be transformed into the life-saving drugs.