The war in Ukraine has snapped imports of Actinium-225-a key radioactive isotope used in advanced cancer treatment.
Key points
- For more than a year, there has been no import of Actinium-225, which used to come from Russia via Germany.
- Actinium is not available in India.
- Russia is the hub of world’s radionuclides. Russia has got the raw material but does not make the final product. It is procured by Germany and from there, it is shipped to all other countries including India.
- Although Actinium-225 is found in nature, nuclear facilities and technology are required to separate it from other isotopes and obtain a sizable purified amount.
- Radionuclides, also called radioactive materials, emit radiation as their atomic nuclei house excess neutrons or protons.
- While the energy and subatomic particles actinium-225 emits can damage human cells, they can also kill some of our most stubborn cancers.
- Actinium-225 (Ac-225) undergoes alpha decay to francium-221 with a half-life of 10 days. For this reason, the isotope is being evaluated as an ideal candidate for use in medical applications.
- Alpha-emitting isotopes show great promise for cancer treatment because of their short path length and high energy transfer of radiation.
