Natural Resources committee  All right. My name is Nigel Lockyer. I grew up in southern Ontario, went to high school in Hamilton, and attended York University in Toronto. I did my graduate and post-graduate work in the U.S. I was a professor of physics for 22 years at the University of Pennsylvania. I'm a

Natural Resources committee  They supply 15%.

Natural Resources committee  That's a good question, but we do not produce technetium-99, which is the isotope that, as I said, is the workhorse of the industry. We produce primarily isotopes for.... They are produced for SPECT, but also for PET. It's not exactly what you need for replacing the output of the

Natural Resources committee  That's a question of an alternative production method for technetium-99, so I have a few things I could say about that. Let me simply say that the present method to make technetium-99 is to make moly-99. Moly-99 is the so-called generator, then from moly-99 it decays into technet

Natural Resources committee  Yes, but maybe I should continue, because somebody else will be interested. For accelerator production, you can think of an accelerator as a source of neutrons, like a reactor. The difference is that an accelerator, I would say, is easier to build and it's easier to regulate. If

Natural Resources committee  I didn't follow it from the beginning, so I don't consider myself an expert on it. It was mere interest. I read it. I listened to it. I read the testimony here.

Natural Resources committee  It seems as though you've spent a long time trying to make it work. That's what I would say. And you've spent a lot of money trying to make it work.

Natural Resources committee  I would never say it's a no go, but it's a question of how much time and effort you want to put into it.

Natural Resources committee  I can't be very precise on that, but the answer is yes. There are a number of efforts in the U.S. to do this. There are people who have approached me in Canada to do this, who would like to see these alternative methods pursued. It's a mixture of expertise that has to come togeth

Natural Resources committee  If you're talking to me, it's a scientific question.

Natural Resources committee  Absolutely. In fact, it's the business people who have asked us whether there are alternatives. Both sides of the equation, if you like, are interested in this. It comes down to all those issues. The people I've spoken to feel that there are challenges to doing it other ways. A m

Natural Resources committee  I said there were 400 cyclotrons worldwide that were not commercial. If you include commercial, there are about 900. That's an estimate, because you don't really know how many commercial ones there are.

Natural Resources committee  I think I said for medical purposes in Canada, those that are being used and those about to be used, it is 16.

Natural Resources committee  Big medical centres want both. They want to produce isotopes for clinical use and the doctors want to do research with them at the same time. They have a dual function.

Natural Resources committee  I would say a major medical centre is where you have this activity.