Medicine

Radioisotopes are used in medicine, both for the diagnosis and treatment of tumor diseases.

The radioisotopes lutetium-177, holmium-166 and terbium-161 produced in the reactor pool of the FRM II are mainly used for tumor therapy, occasionally also for diagnostics (imaging) in medicine.The most important and most frequently used isotope in nuclear medicine is technetium-99m. It is used very widely for diagnostic purposes and is usually produced as a fission product during the irradiation of uranium. In the coming years, large quantities of the parent isotope molybdenum-99 are to be produced at the FRM II. Tumor patients are irradiated directly with fast neutrons at beam tube 10 (see Radiotherapy).