site.btaBulgaria Receives Equipment to Build the Balkans' Biggest Particles Accelerator for Nuclear Medicine

Bulgaria Receives Equipment to Build the Balkans' Biggest Particles Accelerator for Nuclear Medicine

Sofia, January 12 (BTA) - The Institute of Nuclear Research and Nuclear Energy (INRNE) with the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences received Tuesday equipment that will allow it to build the biggest particles accelerator, or cyclotron, in the Balkans. The equipment was received by a party including Education Minister Todor Tanev.

The cyclotron will be mounted in a building which is yet to be built and is due to be ready by the end of this year. Production of isotopes will start in 2017.

The isotopes will be used for cancer diagnosis and treatment, said INRNE director Assoc. Prof. Dimiter Tonev.

He explained that now Bulgaria spends 8 million leva a year to purchase isotopes from Hungary but their efficiency is very low due to a half-life of only 110 min.

The isotopes produced by the new machine will be three or four times cheaper than the imported ones.

So far, only 3,000 to 4,000 Bulgarian cancer patients have had a chance to get isotope treatment and another 16,000 make their own arrangements for isotope treatment abroad, said Assoc. Prof. Dimiter Tonev.

The new cyclotron will make sure all cancer patients in Bulgaria have access to diagnosis and treatment by medical isotopes.

It will produce some 25,000 isotope doses.

Bulgaria will become a regional centre for production and supply of medical isotopes covering also Northern Greece, Macedonia and Serbia.

The new facility will also have chemistry, physics, biology and radiopharmacology labs.

The project for building a cyclotron in Sofia started in 2012 and has so far used 3 million dollars in funding from the US Energy Department, 2 million dollars from the Kozloduy Fund and 1 million leva from the Ministry of Education and Science.

Education Minister Tanev spoke about the huge scientific and practical importance of the new equipment: it opens up new opportunities for Bulgarian researchers and a new generation of medical practitioners, and will cut down the wait for adequate treatment for cancer patients.

Among the officials at the ceremony were also Deputy Health Minister Vanyo Sharkov, representatives of the Kozloduy N-plant and the US Embassy in Sofia, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences President Academician Stefan Vodenicharov, researchers and experts.