Strengthening Europe’s Medical Isotope Supply Chain: NRG PALLAS’ Role in the SECURE Project

The European demand for medical isotopes is increasing rapidly, driven by advances in nuclear medicine and the growing need for more precise diagnostics and targeted therapies for cancer and other serious diseases. Ensuring the sustainable and safe supply of these isotopes is essential, and Europe must strengthen its nuclear infrastructure and expertise to meet future clinical needs. This ambition is at the heart of the SECURE project, Strengthening the European Chain of sUpply for next-generation Radio nuclidEs, a major multinational Euratom initiative that concluded in 2025.

For NRG PALLAS, as a producer of medical isotopes and a key European centre for nuclear research and innovation, SECURE aligns perfectly with its strategic mission. As lead scientist at NRG PALLAS Yulia Buchatskaya explains, NRG PALLAS sees itself as both a knowledge holder and an engine for secure European access to medical isotopes. “One of our main business today includes the production of molybdenum-99, which decays into technetium 99m, a vital diagnostic isotope used to detect serious conditions such as cardiovascular, lung, and brain diseases, and various types of cancer,” she says. “But to support the future of nuclear medicine, we must secure the entire supply chain of novel medical isotopes, from source material all the way to the patient.”

This supply chain is far more complex than many realise. It begins with the sourcing and purification of radioactive target material, continues through irradiation in nuclear reactors or cyclotrons, and then requires sophisticated chemical processing, separation and radiopharmaceutical production. Once an isotope is produced and formulated, it must be transported, injected and monitored. Dosimetry and radiation protection expertise are essential at every stage, for both patient safety and the safety of medical staff. The SECURE project set out to address vulnerabilities and develop new methods across this entire chain, with special attention to promising new therapeutic radionuclides such as lead-212, actinium-225, , terbium-161 and other emerging alpha and beta emitters.

Leading role

NRG PALLAS played a leading role in several parts of the project, particularly in Work Package 1, which focused on target development. “We delivered three major technical reports together with consortium partnes,” Buchatskaya notes. “These covered purification processes, encapsulation techniques and solutions for the specific challenges of preparing radioactive materials, specifically hard-to-handle radium-226 for irradiation.” The work strengthened the fundamental building blocks of isotope production, ensuring Europe has access to reliable, high-quality target materials for its reactors and other irradiation facilities.

In Work Package 2, NRG PALLAS focused on advancing its lead-212 generator technology. Building on a foundation developed prior to the project, the team worked on optimizing the production process to significantly improve yields and purity. Lead-212, derived from the parent nuclide thorium-228, is considered highly promising for targeted cancer therapies. During the project, the team in Petten successfully enhanced the process to achieve higher-quality material and demonstrated the complete exclusion of thorium-228, a long-lived and highly radiotoxic contaminant. These improvements bring the technology closer to meeting clinical requirements. “This was a key achievement,” Buchatskaya emphasises. “We were able to produce pure lead-212 that meets preclinical research requirements. After extensive validation, we delivered a sample to our partners in Poland, who performed successful radiolabelling experiments. This is a crucial step toward future clinical applications.”

Deepening collaboration and mutual understanding

The SECURE consortium brought together seventeen partners from across Europe, including major nuclear research centres, universities and national laboratories. The project was coordinated by POLATOM in Poland and included participants from France, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Slovenia, Italy, the Czech Republic, Romania and the Netherlands. Every six months the partners met in a different country, combining scientific workshops with facility visits. These included a visit to lutetium-177 production facilities in Italy, the Polish National Centre for Nuclear Research, and a project meeting in London. One meeting was also hosted at NRG PALLAS in Petten, where participants visited the hot cell laboratories, R&D facilities and the construction site of the new PALLAS reactor. Buchatskaya recalls these exchanges as “very inspiring,” adding that they helped deepen collaboration and mutual understanding across the European isotope community.

Despite the challenges of working across borders, Brexit, for instance, introduced new export-control requirements for radionuclide shipments - the project achieved its central goal: strengthening the European supply chain for medical isotopes and establishing a framework for future collaboration. The consortium delivered a large number of technical reports, alongside advances in target technology, isotope purification, generator design, dosimetry and safety guidelines. Some results will become publicly available in scientific publications, while others remain internal to support future industrial development.

Key contributor

For NRG PALLAS, SECURE has been both a scientific success and a strategic confirmation of its role within Europe. “We are fundamentally a research and innovation institute,” Buchatskaya says. “This project not only strengthened our technical capabilities, but also reaffirmed our role as a key contributor to Europe’s medical isotope landscape. It was a very productive collaboration, and now that the project has concluded, we are already looking toward new initiatives.”

As the field of nuclear medicine continues to expand, especially in targeted radionuclide therapy, one of the most promising approaches to personalised cancer care, the work carried out in SECURE ensures that Europe is better prepared. The strengthened networks, new technologies and validated production routes developed in the project will help safeguard the availability of critical isotopes for years to come. And with the future PALLAS reactor under construction, NRG PALLAS is poised to remain at the heart of this effort, driving secure access to life-saving medical isotopes for patients across Europe and beyond.