Remember back in 2013 when the nuclear power plant at Chalk River had to be shut down creating a major shortage of medical isotopes used in diagnosing cancer?
If only there was a way to produce these potentially life-saving chemicals more cheaply and reliably we all groaned (okay, maybe not all of us).
Now there is, and it is a made-in-Saskatchewan story.
It all started a few years ago when Mark de Jong, a director at Canadian Light Source (CLS) at the University of Saskatchewan attended a conference where he and another physicist kicked around the idea of using a particle accelerator to stream X-rays at Molybdenum-100 to produce Molybdenum-99 (Mo-99) from which Technetium-99m (Tc-99m) can be extracted. Tc-99m is the most commonly used medical isotope on the planet.
The only problem was the $13.5 million price tag that came with commercializing the process.
Fortunately, the federal government was looking for a solution to the nuclear reactor problem and ponied up $10 million. The Province put up another $2 million and CLS made up the difference.
It is really difficult to overstate the significance of this breakthrough. It is a huge deal.
Nuclear power plants can cost billions to build, take up enormous amounts of space, produce radioactive waste and are a constant source of environmental controversy. A particle accelerator can be built in a university's basement for a few million and poses almost no environmental threat.
If there is a shutdown of any of the very few plants that produce medical isotopes, it is inevitably long-lived and has a large impact on global supply.
In the event of a breakdown, an accelerator can be back online relatively quickly.
The CLS Mo-99 supply is being shipped to a lab in Manitoba for extraction and the product is currently being tested for certification by Health Canada. Once the national regulator gives the go ahead, this one machine will be capable of supplying Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Two or three more could service the whole nation. And, De Jong told the Saskatoon Star Phoenix, 20 could completely replace Chalk River, which also exports. That sounds like a very good $270 million investment to me.
Amazing feat
In the column-writing business, some weeks are better than others. This week, I had half a dozen topics I could have explored, but the significance and home-grown nature of the medical isotopes story won the day.
I simply cannot let the runner-up go without a mention, however. Last week, scientists accomplished something that up until the moment it happened was the kind of thing science fiction was made of. Landing something on the moon or another planet is feat enough, but setting something down on a comet less than the length of Broadway Street, 500 million kilometres from Earth and traveling at 135,000 kilometres per hour is more than impressive.
Most people can appreciate, at least to some degree, how impressive that feat of engineering is, but that is not what makes it so exciting.
Comets are leftovers from the coalescence of the solar system 4.6 billion years ago. Theoretically, they are the stuff from which everything we know sprang. They could shed light not only on the formation of the planets and moons, but on the very origin of life.
Unfortunately a technical glitch in the landing made the lander bounce into a shaded crater. Being solar powered, we may not see much data from this probe, but at least we know we can do it.
Oh, Orville
Nutritional information on food packaging was a very good idea. Unfortunately, the regulations just don't live up to the intent.
Last week I had a craving for popcorn. Don't ask me why, but I did. I've heard the claims about it being "smart food," a healthy snack etc.
From reading the nutrition information on the Orville Redenbacher pop-up bowls, I'm not entirely convinced of that. There isn't a whole lot to it besides some carbohydrate and fibre and, of course, the salt and fat, which is probably the real reason for my craving.
The thing I noticed right away though, was that no matter which type I picked up, Light Buttery, Buttery, Extra Buttery or Select White, the calorie count per serving was the same.
Of course, I knew right away that can't be right. Unless....
Sure enough, the range of serving size went from six to 10.5 cups popped so they could keep the calories per serving at a respectable 270.
I bought the Light Buttery at 10.5 cups per serving. I measured and the pop-up bowl held a little better than 10 cups.
So, the Select White pop up bowl, which surprisingly had the smallest serving size at six popped cups, actually has almost twice as many calories as the Light Buttery.
This loophole in the legislation that allows manufacturers to play around with numbers like this must be closed.
