The High Flux Reactor at Petten in the Netherlands will from now on only produce medical isotopes with low-enriched uranium (LEU), operator NRG announced on Thursday.

Until recently, production of medical isotopes for NRG’s Belgian partner the Institut National des Radioéléments (IRE) were still produced using high-enriched uranium (HEU) because IRE could not fully process low-enriched uranium.

IRE has now partially converted its chemical process to LEU, meaning NRG – the world’s largest producer of medical isotopes – can take the final step and stop production at the HFR using HEU.

As part of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), which has been signed by 191 states, a consensus was reached on phasing out the use of HEU, which can be used to produce nuclear weapons.