{"entity":{"id":"idea-reg-legacy-radium-recovery-ac225","kind":"idea","name":"Recover legacy radium-226 sources worldwide as the feedstock for actinium-225","aka":[],"tldr":"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.","asOf":"2026-09-08","links":[{"label":"IAEA on actinium-225 supply","url":"https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/actinium-225-production-and-supply"}],"tags":[],"related":[],"cancers":[],"sections":[],"technologies":["targeted-alpha-therapy","radioligand-therapy"],"targets":[],"drugs":["ac225-psma","ryz101"],"companies":["terrapower-isotopes","orano-med"],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":["b-manufacturing-cell-therapy"],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"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.","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","cost":"medium","horizonYears":4},"route":"/ideas/idea-reg-legacy-radium-recovery-ac225/","neighbours":{"technology":[{"id":"radioligand-therapy","kind":"technology","name":"Radioligand therapy (beta emitters)","route":"/technologies/radioligand-therapy/"},{"id":"targeted-alpha-therapy","kind":"technology","name":"Targeted alpha therapy","route":"/technologies/targeted-alpha-therapy/"}],"drug":[{"id":"ryz101","kind":"drug","name":"Actinium-225 DOTATATE","route":"/drugs/ryz101/"},{"id":"ac225-psma","kind":"drug","name":"Actinium-225 PSMA agents","route":"/drugs/ac225-psma/"}],"company":[{"id":"orano-med","kind":"company","name":"Orano Med","route":"/companies/orano-med/"},{"id":"terrapower-isotopes","kind":"company","name":"TerraPower Isotopes","route":"/companies/terrapower-isotopes/"}],"bottleneck":[{"id":"b-manufacturing-cell-therapy","kind":"bottleneck","name":"Manufacturing cost and time for living and radioactive medicines","route":"/bottlenecks/b-manufacturing-cell-therapy/"}]}}