S. African nukes to detect cancer

Nov 13, 2010 |

Johannesburg, Nov. 12: South Africa has transformed apartheid-era nuclear weapons into a tool for detecting cancer and heart disease, with a new technology that could ease global worries about nuclear arms trafficking.

After voluntarily dismantling its weapons programme, democratic South Africa used the leftover nuclear fuel to produce medical isotopes used by doctors for imaging technology.

South Africa is one of the world’s top three producers of molybdenum-99, better known as moly, used in 80 per cent of the 50 million nuclear medical procedures performed globally each year.

A new technique designed by the South African Nuclear Energy Corporation (Necsa) allows scientists to create moly using low-enriched uranium, rather than the highly enriched type needed for bombs.

South Africa is the only country using the new technique, which now appears poised to help keep the nuclear industry afloat.

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