The facility will be located at Ongkharak Nuclear Research Centre in Nakhon Nayok. With an area of more than 5400 m2, the new complex will accommodate a cyclotron and several laboratories for the production of radiopharmaceuticals for nuclear medicine and other purposes, as well as serve as a platform for R&D activities in the field of radiation technologies and innovations.
Currently all the isotopes for SPECT in Thailand are imported, with some PET isotopes produced in hospitals locally in amounts that cannot satisfy the demand. Thus, the new cyclotron supplied by ROSATOM will allow Thailand to produce its own isotopes and will also drive the R&D activities in nuclear medicine, as well as in application of nuclear technologies in the different areas of industry.
“We are happy to be a part of the project that will help to save lives and to boost innovations in Thailand. ROSATOM has decades of experience in designing and manufacturing nuclear healthcare and R&D solutions. There are 14 radionuclide production facilities operating in Russia”, said Alexander Merten, President of RUSATOM International Network.
RUSATOM International Network (a subsidiary of ROSATOM) operating global network of representative offices for ROSATOM, with its office for Southeast Asia countries operating out of Singapore facilitated the deal.
The core of the complex will be a MCC-30/15 cyclotron of 30 MeV proton energy, supplied by ROSATOM. It will be utilized also to produce isotopes for PET and SPECT diagnostics. These isotopes allow determining the stage of oncological, cardiac, and neurological diseases accurately, and in many cases may be almost the only way to prescribe appropriate treatment.