A story by Lisa Stiffler in GeekWire explains how Everett company TerraPower Isotopes has managed to produce a rare cancer-drug ingredient, actinium-225, from nuclear waste. Though it has access to only the equivalent of 17 pennies’ in weight of source material from the Department of Energy, the company can nevertheless produce enough of the radioactive ingredient for 400,000 doses of radiopharmaceuticals. Drugs using the company’s product, which are now in clinical trials, have the ability to target cancer cells precisely with deadly, but short-acting, radioactivity. Image: Public domain
