Bruce Power has successfully completed another harvest of cancer-fighting cobalt-60 during its planned outage of Unit 8, which also saw the installation of a system innovation that will increase the production of the medical isotope to meet the increasing demand on the world market.
The medical isotopes will be processed and distributed by Ottawa-based Nordion and will sterilize billions of single-use-devices, such as syringes, surgical masks, gloves and gowns, as well as being used for the treatment of breast cancer and brain tumors.
The two companies have partnered to produce both the low specific activity and high specific activity cobalt-60.
The harvesting occurred during the outage in Unit 8, which is part of the ongoing life-extension program that will see Bruce Power produce carbon-free electricity and cancer fighting medical isotopes though 2064.