DTU plans to purchase a medical cyclotron for isotope production as augmentation of production capacity and as a necessary backup for on-going patient-critical radiopharmaceutical supplies. In the process of building the necessary technical facilities at site (bunker, shielding, power and cooling supplies) the vendor offers to replace our existing early prototype PT600 cyclotron with a much newer product version. The offer is made partly to alleviate some spare-part/service related issues with the old prototype, and partly as the supplier sees DTU as a strong collaboration partner in development of this cyclotron platform.
1 (one) 7.8 MeV proton cyclotron at a very low, nominal price, but including delivery, installation, commissioning. The cyclotron does not include the normal self-shielding, as it is installed in a bunker and not in an ordinary room.
DTU Health Technology's Hevesy Laboratory routinely produces radioactive isotopes for use in unique medicines that are sold in Denmark and abroad for nuclear medicine diagnostics and therapy. The Laboratory is also deeply involved, on a national and international level, in research and development projects for the production of novel radionuclides for new promising medical procedures, which can drastically improve the outcome for many medical conditions, especially in cancer patients.
For this purpose, in 2013 the section has started a collaboration agreement with GE Healthcare Danmark A/S for the development and testing of a new small medical cyclotron, originally called PT600. Over the years, Hevesy has become a strong collaboration partner in development of this cyclotron platform on which we have acquired the highest technical skills that are necessary to pro-vide state-of-art radionuclide technologies.
The machine was installed in Hevesy’s premises in 2013. After about ten years of use, it becomes necessary to replace the old prototype (PT600) with a new, virtually identical, 7.8 MeV proton cyclotron.
It is necessary that the new machine is a GE 7.8 MeV proton cyclotron for a number of reasons:
• Having worked on its development, our staff has a profound knowledge of its operating principles (hardware and software).
• The premises are optimized for hosting a PT600 proton cyclotron. This not only refers to square meters or electrical, HVAC and water-cooling installations but extends also to the radiation safety aspects, which are vital for the radiation protection of the staff.
• DTU Hevesy Laboratory already owns two similar cyclotrons (PETtrace 800 type), which share a large fraction of the underlying technology. The operation of cyclotrons is typically carried out under great time pressure (short half-life of the radionuclide) and it is not be realistic to have double staffing with operators who each know their own type of cyclotron.
It is DTU's assessment that only GE Healthcare Danmark A/S can deliver the required cyclotron, which is why DTU intends to make a direct award for this purchase.
DTU's maximum budget for the purchase is DKK 1 million.