A system being installed at the Darlington nuclear power station in Canada that will allow the Unit 2 reactor to produce a much-needed medical radioisotope, or radionuclide, has reached the “energisation” milestone, enabling preliminary testing to begin.

The system at Darlington-2, a project led by Canadian companies Laurentis Energy Partners and BWXT Medical, will produce molybdenum-99 (Mo-99), a medical radioisotope used in over 40 million procedures each year, helping to detect illnesses like cancer and heart disease. Mo-99 decays to Technetium-99 (Tc-99m), one of the most prevalently used diagnostic imaging agents in nuclear medicine. As such, Mo-99 is an essential radioisotope in the nuclear medicine supply chain.