MDS Nordion gets set to build Canadian cyclotron

In a bid to expand its capacity to make certain key radioisotopes for use in nuclear medicine, MDS Nordion plans to invest $20 million to build a cyclotron in Vancouver, BC. The atom smasher, when completed in January 2003, could double the company’s capacity to produce iodine-123 and palladium-103. MDS Nordion currently operates two cyclotrons at the TRIUMF site located on the University of British Columbia campus and a third in Fleurus, Belgium. These facilities supply more than two-thirds of the world’s reactor-produced isotopes.