[ RadSafe ] Nuclear Cleanup Could Derail an Experimental CancerTreatment, Study Says

Thu Jun 5 16:58:49 CDT 2008

All,

Wasn't the same claim made about the material in the silo's at Fernald in ~
1994?

Respectfully,

Christopher W. Becker, Operations Manager

U n i v e r s i t y   o f   M i c h i g a n
Michigan Memorial Phoenix Energy Institute
2609 Draper, Room 211
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2101
http://www.mmpei.umich.edu/
Office: 734.764.6224
Fax:    734.936.1571
Cell:   734.320.1711

-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl] On Behalf
Of ROY HERREN
Sent: Thursday, June 05, 2008 4:48 PM
To: radsafe at radlab.nl
Subject: [ RadSafe ] Nuclear Cleanup Could Derail an Experimental
CancerTreatment, Study Says

________________________________

June 4, 2008
Nuclear Cleanup Could Derail an Experimental Cancer Treatment, Study Says 
By MATTHEW L. WALD
WASHINGTON - A cleanup of nuclear waste from the cold war era threatens to
eliminate the supply of an obscure isotope that shows great promise in
cancer treatments, according to a report by the Energy Department's
inspector general. But the department has concluded that the material,
uranium 233, which does not exist in nature, is too expensive and risky to
keep. The dispute is a rare instance where environmental cleanup and human
health are in direct opposition. 
"The department is poised to dispose of a national resource," said the
report, which was released on Monday. Most of the material was produced by
reactors at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee by irradiating a
naturally occurring material, thorium, but those reactors no longer operate.
A smaller amount is stored at the Idaho National Laboratory, in Idaho Falls.
The Idaho laboratory has a test reactor that could produce uranium 233, but
replacing the 700 pounds already stored there would take about 1,000 years,
the report said. Complicating the situation is that uranium 233 can be used
as fuel in nuclear weapons, meaning it cannot be commercially distributed,
and can be handled only in small quantities, to avoid the risk of an
unwanted chain reaction. Produced by adding an extra neutron to thorium, the
uranium slowly breaks down into another form of thorium, and then into other
isotopes, including actinium 225 and bismuth 213. What distinguishes both of
these for cancer treatments is that as they decay into new materials, they
emit alpha particles. These particles can be superior to the standard form
of radiation used to treat cancer, gamma rays, because the rays travel long
distances through tissue and damage many cells, while the alpha particles
have very short trajectories, and carry relatively huge amounts of energy.
"A single atom delivered to a cancer cell can kill that cell," said Dr.
David A. Scheinberg, chairman of the experimental therapeutics center at
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. "Nothing else approaches
that." 
Research trials at Sloan-Kettering on patients with acute myeloid leukemia
are showing promising results, Dr. Scheinberg said, using antibodies to
deliver the radioactive atoms directly to the tumors. Researchers there are
testing the technique in animals for prostate, colon, lymphoma and brain
tumors. 
The isotopes have a convoluted history. Uranium 233 very slowly breaks down
into thorium 229, half of it making the conversion over 159,000 years. There
is a significant amount of thorium 229 only because the Energy Department
has had tons of uranium sitting around for decades. 
The thorium is not medically useful, but its half-life, the time for half to
convert, is 7,340 years, and it decays into a radium isotope, and then into
actinium, which has a 10-day half-life. (Short half-lives are desirable in
this kind of cancer treatment, because such materials deliver their dose
promptly.) One of the "daughters" of actinium is bismuth, which has a
half-life of only 45.6 minutes. Researchers are testing both the actinium
and the bismuth as therapeutic drugs. The bismuth, in turn, decays to a
stable isotope, with "acceptable toxicity," according to the research.
Various alternative processes have been proposed for making actinium and
bismuth, but none have been proved. 
The Food and Drug Administration has approved two radioactive materials for
delivery by antibody, both beta emitters, Dr. Scheinberg said; it has not
yet approved an alpha emitter. Beta particles have less energy and travel
farther, making them less helpful in treatment. 
The Energy Department spends $5 million a year on security at the building
at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory where most of the uranium 233 is
stored, and the building needs a one-time investment of about $25 million if
it is not retired soon, the agency told the inspector general. 
In 2005, Congress, concerned about security and safety, told the Energy
Department to dispose of the material; the plan is to dilute it with
depleted uranium, cast the mixture in cement and bury it at an underground
repository near Carlsbad, N.M. But shipments would not begin for another few
years. 
"It is the highest-security building we have down at the Oak Ridge facility
right now," said Frank Marcinowski, a deputy assistant secretary of energy.
"That's one of the reasons why we're behind Congress's direction for us to
disposition it." Allen G. Croff, a retired Oak Ridge executive who served on
a National Academy of Sciences panel on the cleanup of radioactive
materials, said in an e-mail message, "In essence, this is yet another
decision concerning federal budget priorities." The current conclusion, Mr.
Croff said, is that maintaining the stockpile "is not worthwhile," but he
said it might be time for an independent review.

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