# Recover legacy radium-226 sources worldwide as the feedstock for actinium-225

Source: https://onco.cc/ideas/idea-reg-legacy-radium-recovery-ac225/  
OnCo record `idea-reg-legacy-radium-recovery-ac225` (Idea). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Thousands of old radium sources sit in hospital and industrial storage. They are exactly the raw material needed to make actinium-225, the scarcest cancer isotope.

## Summary

Actinium-225 supply from thorium-229 generators (the legacy US and Russian stockpiles) is limited to tens of curies a year, far short of projected demand for alpha radioligand therapy. Accelerator routes (radium-226 irradiated in cyclotrons, linacs or via spallation at TRIUMF) scale with radium feedstock. Radium-226 exists in large quantities in disused brachytherapy sources, industrial gauges and uranium mill tailings, currently classed as waste and expensive to store. The proposal is a coordinated recovery, purification and target-fabrication programme run with the IAEA and national nuclear agencies, offering source holders free disposal in exchange for the material.

## Fields

- Kind: Idea
- Last checked: 2026-09-08
- Hypothesis: Recovered radium-226 sufficient to supply multiple accelerator producers can be secured within five years at a cost per curie of actinium-225 below the thorium-generator route, lifting global actinium-225 output by an order of magnitude.
- Rationale: Radium disposal is already a cost that source holders would pay to avoid, and purification chemistry is established. The binding constraint on the accelerator route is licensed feedstock, not physics.
- Proposed test: Inventory recoverable radium-226 in ten countries, run a pilot recovery of 50 grams with one accelerator producer, and price the resulting actinium-225 against current generator supply.
- Maturity: early-clinical
- Actor: policy

## Sources

- IAEA on actinium-225 supply: https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/actinium-225-production-and-supply

## Connected records

- technologies: [Radioligand therapy (beta emitters)](https://onco.cc/technologies/radioligand-therapy/), [Targeted alpha therapy](https://onco.cc/technologies/targeted-alpha-therapy/)
- drugs: [Actinium-225 DOTATATE](https://onco.cc/drugs/ryz101/), [Actinium-225 PSMA agents](https://onco.cc/drugs/ac225-psma/)
- companies: [Orano Med](https://onco.cc/companies/orano-med/), [TerraPower Isotopes](https://onco.cc/companies/terrapower-isotopes/)
- bottlenecks: [Manufacturing cost and time for living and radioactive medicines](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-manufacturing-cell-therapy/)

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