Atkins Nuclear Secured Celebrates Historic Achievement in Next Generation Cancer Treatment

OAK RIDGE, Tenn., USA: Atkins Nuclear Secured Holdings Corporation, a member of the SNC-Lavalin Group, and its subsidiary Isotek Systems, LLC (Isotek) along with its partners TerraPower, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and Cardinal Health™ Nuclear & Precision Health Solutions celebrated a project underway that is helping enable cancer treatments.

The revolutionary new cancer treating material is extracted from an inventory of legacy nuclear material being eliminated by the DOE and its contractor Isotek. Through this project, 75-100 more doses of next generation alpha targeted therapy treatments will be available annually than are currently available worldwide.

“Being able to extract potentially lifesaving medical isotopes prior to dispositioning highly enriched material is precisely what we mean when we say we engineer a better future for our planet and its people,” said Joe St. Julian, President, Nuclear, SNC-Lavalin. “This has created an aspiring mission for everyone involved. We are honored to be assisting the DOE with this historic achievement.”

“No One Fights Alone” embodies the partnership between the medical research community, federal government and private companies to make this advancement to cancer research possible. The program’s name serves as a reminder to those battling cancer that an entire community is fighting alongside them.

Isotek Systems (subsidiary of Atkins Nuclear Secured) TerraPower and the DOE entered a public-private partnership in 2018. Through this partnership, Isotek is extracting the rare medical isotope Thorium-229 for TerraPower Isotopes, a subsidiary of TerraPower, to advance promising cancer treatment research. Today’s event marked the next phase of this effort, providing significantly larger quantities of medical isotopes to aid research and simultaneously eliminating an inventory of 1950’s era Uranium-233 nuclear material stored at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

During the event, Atkins Nuclear Secured President, Jim Rugg, presented a donation to the Methodists Cancer Hospitality Houses, which provide temporary lodging for patients and families traveling to Oak Ridge, Tennessee for extended medical treatments.

“This partnership is a success for all involved,” said Jay Mullis, manager of DOE’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management. “Through Isoteck’s innovative approach, we are able to accelerate one of our highest priority projects, spend less taxpayer dollars to complete the project and provide material that will greatly benefit the public in the future.”

In 2021, TerraPower signed a collaboration agreement with Cardinal Health NPHS to produce and distribute TerraPower’s Actinium-225 product, which is generated using the thorium-229 extracted in Oak Ridge. Actinium-225 will be used in drug trials involving targeted therapy for diseases such as breast, prostate, colon and neuroendocrine cancers as well as melanoma and lymphoma.

Highlights of the public-private partnership:

• Significantly increases the number of cancer treatment doses available annually: This project provides the capacity to produce 500,000 cancer treatment doses per year. Currently there are only 4,000 doses of these lifesaving therapies, known as targeted alpha therapy, available worldwide.
• Beneficially reuses a portion of the Urnanium-233 before it is removed: Under the current partnership, Isotek extract the Thorium-229 from Uranium-233 and sends it to TerraPower’s laboratory in Everett, Washington. Terrapower Isotopes then process the Thorium-299 to create Actinium-225, the medial isotope used to develop drugs that can fight cancer.
• Saved taxpayer dollars and accelerated one of DOE’s highest priority cleanup projects: Isotek reinvested funds it received from TerraPower into the project, helping accelerate the work and begin processing Urnaium-233 sooner. Isotek purchased gloveboxes that allowed workers to begin processing canisters with lower levels of radiation. That approach enabled the extraction and delivery of rare isotopes quicker. This processing campaign, known as the Thorium Express Project, ran from 2019-2021 and received a Secretary of Energy Achievement Award in 2021 for its innovation and cost savings. 

Notes to editors

About Atkins Nuclear Secured 

Atkins Nuclear Secured Holdings Corporation is a business unit within SNC-Lavalin’s global nuclear sector focused on the US federal market. With strengths in nuclear operations, process design engineering, waste management, characterization, transportation, disposition and high-level waste technologies, Atkins Nuclear Secured is a partner in the teams managing DOE’s Tank Operations Contract and Central Plateau Cleanup Contract at Hanford; leads the teams managing DOE’s DUF6 conversion plants in Ohio and Kentucky, as well as the Canadian Nuclear Laboratories; and manages the U-233 Disposition project in Tennessee. At Atkins Nuclear Secured, we safely deliver high-consequence, technically complex missions for federal governments.

About Isotek 

Isotek Syetems, LLC is a DOE contractor under Atkins Nuclear Secured. Since 2003, Isotek has been responsible for safely and securely overseeing the inventory of U-233 and preparing its removal from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Since then, employees have transferred and dispositioned approximately half of the inventory. The remaining inventory requires processing and downblending prior to disposal, which began in October 2019. 

About SNC-Lavalin

Founded in 1911, SNC-Lavalin is a fully integrated professional services and project management company with offices around the world dedicated to engineering a better future for our planet and its people. We create sustainable solutions that connect people, technology and data to design, deliver and operate the most complex projects. We deploy global capabilities locally to our clients and deliver unique end-to-end services across the whole life cycle of an asset including consulting, advisory & environmental services, intelligent networks & cybersecurity, design & engineering, procurement, project & construction management, operations & maintenance, decommissioning and capital – and delivered to clients in key strategic sectors such as Engineering Services, Nuclear, Operations & Maintenance and Capital. News and information are available at snclavalin.com or follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

About SNC-Lavalin’s Nuclear Business

SNC-Lavalin has over 70 years’ of global nuclear expertise, delivering nuclear technology products and full-service solutions to nuclear utilities around the world. With an innovative technology portfolio, including access to over 500 patented solutions, SNC-Lavalin solves technically complex challenges across the whole nuclear lifecycle from design and new build through asset management and from life extension and late life management through decommissioning and waste management. SNC-Lavalin operates and manages government nuclear research sites, transforming ageing infrastructure and safely managing legacy nuclear waste. SNC-Lavalin is the steward of CANDU® nuclear technology, operating on four continents, and provides advisory and engineering services to other nuclear developers. SNC-Lavalin is also involved in developing medical radioisotopes for cancer research through its partnership with TerraPower.