As part of a signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) last year to create a framework and dialog in the field of nuclear science and education, ROSATOM Southeast Asia and Chulalongkorn University held a public lecture last Thursday on nuclear use in medicine in Thailand and the potential of the market within Southeast Asia.
Veronica Revkova from the National Research Nuclear University (MEPhI) in Moscow, Russia, Rosatom’s core educational institution, presented on the topic of nuclear medicine and its potential use case for diagnosis and therapy in various fields of scientific and practical medicine. She emphasized that together with ever-increasing cancer burden and changing cancer pattern worldwide, nuclear medicine experts are constantly working on inventing new methods of diagnosis and treatment, such as non-invasive metastasis screening using radiopharmaceuticals. She also touched on the potential for Thailand to be a big player regionally.
“With the development of the cyclotron facility for the Thailand Institute of Nuclear Technology, Thailand could become the center of nuclear medicine in Southeast Asia,” she added.
Last September, Rosatom and Kinetics Corporation Ltd (Thailand) signed a contract to construct a cyclotron facility that will be used to fabricate radiopharmaceuticals for Thailand Institute of Nuclear Technology (TINT). The facility will be operated by TINT to produce isotopes for medical purposes.
Mr. Akkapob Ngamlamiad, an Engineer from TINT, was also part of the lecture at Chulalongkorn University where he made a speech on the cyclotron project and isotope production. TINT is the leading research institute focusing on deploying nuclear technologies in Thailand.
“After the completion of the cyclotron facility, Thailand will be able to produce our own SPECT isotopes which allows Thai patients throughout the country to have access to health diagnostic & treatment locally. In addition, our R&D will continue to expand to other industries like agriculture and become the center of knowledge-based infrastructure for nuclear physics study” concluded Mr. Akkapob.
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According to the contract signed on September 7, 2017, ROSATOM will be a technology supplier for a cyclotron complex with radiochemical laboratories for the Thailand Institute of Nuclear Technology (TINT).
The State Atomic Energy Corporation ROSATOM is one of the global technological leaders. It is one of the largest companies of the Russian Federation and largest taxpayers of the country. It brings together nuclear power and power engineering assets, as well as NPP design and construction. ROSATOM is the largest electricity generating company in Russia, producing 202.868 bln kWh of electricity in 2017 (196.366 bln kWh in 2016) or 18.9% of the country’s total generation of electricity. ROSATOM holds first place for the largest portfolio of foreign construction projects (36 NPP Units in 12 countries). ROSATOM produces annually approximately 3,000 tons of uranium production abroad excluded. Raw materials of the Russian and foreign deposits (particularly in Kazakhstan) will be enough to supply both domestic and international projects of Rosatom for the next hundred years. ROSATOM covers 17% of the global nuclear fuel market. ROSATOM also manufactures equipment and produces isotopes for nuclear medicine, carries out research, material studies. It also produces supercomputers and software as well as different nuclear and non-nuclear innovative products. ROSATOM’s strategy is to develop clean energy projects, including wind energy. ROSATOM brings together over 300 enterprises and organizations, including the world's only nuclear icebreaker fleet.
On November 13, 2017 the first event under the newly signed MoU took place. Chulalongkorn University held an open lecture by Dr. Ekaterina Petrova from MEPhI on Innovative Nuclear Technologies for Sustainable Development.
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