ReadingResearchRadarInvestment frameworkAI Company Primary Sources
Sign in / Sign up
← Back to reading
NewsMaterial3 min readDisconfirmAI Editorial

Construction Physics author Brian Potter: Fusion could significantly reduce the cost of isotope production

Isotopes, priced by the gram, are among the most expensive materials on Earth and face fragile supply chains. Construction Physics author Brian Potter analyzes the efficiency limitations of current particle accelerators and fission reactors as manufacturing paths, arguing that fusion reactions can produce neutrons with much higher energy than fission while simultaneously generating electricity. If reaction combinations are properly arranged, isotope production costs could drop significantly—at least for certain isotopes and reactions—impacting fields such as medical imaging, nuclear fuel, and pure-isotope materials.

2026-10-29 23:45 GMT+8

Technetium-99m, widely used in medical imaging, relies on the decay of molybdenum-99, which is produced by only a handful of nuclear reactors worldwide. In 2024, maintenance shutdowns at some of these facilities triggered global shortages. Priced by the gram, isotopes are among the most expensive materials on Earth, and their supply chains are extremely fragile. Brian Potter, author of Construction Physics, analyzed the technical roots of this dilemma and proposed a potential solution: fusion.

One of the primary methods for producing isotopes today is using particle accelerators. These devices use electromagnetic fields to accelerate charged particles, meaning they can only interact with electrons, protons, or positively charged atomic nuclei. The Coulomb repulsion between protons and target nuclei results in very low conversion efficiency: for example, General Electric Healthcare’s PETtrace 800 uses protons to bombard oxygen-18 to produce fluorine-18, but only about one in every 800 protons successfully enters an oxygen nucleus. A single medical accelerator costs millions of dollars, operates at approximately 75 kilowatts, and produces material roughly the size of a speck of dust per hour.

Another path involves nuclear fission. Fission reactors release neutrons that can bombard target materials to produce isotopes, such as placing cobalt-59 in a reactor to generate cobalt-60 via neutron capture. However, fission neutrons generally have low energy—averaging about 1.5 to 2 million electron volts (MeV)—and in power reactors, moderators further slow them down to about 0.025 eV to sustain the chain reaction. Even without moderation, most fission neutrons lack the energy required to drive many useful nuclear reactions. Additionally, fission reactors are heavily regulated, making them difficult and expensive to build.

Sign in / Sign up
ReadingResearchRadarInvestment frameworkAI Company Primary Sources

Potter points out that fusion reactions reliably produce high-energy neutrons. Deuterium-tritium fusion releases neutrons with energies exceeding 14 MeV, whereas only about 0.1% of fission neutrons exceed 10 MeV. Crucially, fusion facilities can output energy alongside isotope production. While accelerators only produce isotopes—requiring all facility costs to be recovered through isotope sales—fusion facilities, if configured with appropriate reaction combinations, can use revenue from electricity sales to offset construction and operational costs. Potter believes that under suitable arrangements, the production costs for certain isotopes could drop significantly, though he explicitly limits this conclusion to apply at least to specific isotopes and reactions.

A significant reduction in isotope costs would directly impact several sectors. In medicine, actinium-225 is a promising isotope for cancer treatment, but current supplies are extremely limited, allowing only a small number of patients to be treated annually; cheaper manufacturing processes could expand access and even enable new medical isotopes. For nuclear fuel, fusion reactors require lithium-6 to breed tritium within the cycle, fission reactors need highly pure lithium-7, and some new reactor designs, such as TerraPower’s molten salt reactor in the United States, require chlorine-37. Currently, these isotopes are either produced only in gram quantities or rely on expensive enrichment processes in Russia and China. In materials science, isotopically pure silicon-28 is considered valuable for building quantum computers due to its distinct quantum mechanical properties, and isotopically pure diamond has far higher thermal conductivity than standard diamond. Historically, producing isotopically pure materials has been so difficult that many of their properties remain unknown.

Potter cites solar photovoltaics, the Bessemer steelmaking process, and Ford’s Model T to illustrate that a technology’s impact often depends on how cheaply it can be produced. Whether fusion-driven nuclear chemistry can truly rewrite the economics of isotope manufacturing remains an area of exploration. Companies such as Marathon Fusion and SHINE Technologies in the United States, along with Italy’s SORGENTINA-RF program and New Zealand’s OpenStar, are advancing related solutions, but there are no yet-verified examples of large-scale production. Potter’s stance is conditional: he considers this direction worthy of continued attention.

Sources

  • construction-physics.com↗
Continue researching →