Isotope Harvesting at Michigan State University
Did you know that Michigan State University is home to the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, or FRIB, a next-generation accelerator for nuclear structure and astrophysics research and the newest user facility within the DOE Office of Science?
The FRIB program was recently awarded a grant worth $13 million over the next four years from the DOE Isotope Program to add chemical processing infrastructure for routine isotope harvesting from the accelerator machine beam dump or cooling water. The grant will fund a new laboratory focused on the recovery and purification of isotopes created during FRIB's routine operations. These isotopes will be processed and made available through the Isotope Program for research or commercial use.
The new laboratory, nicknamed the Isotope Harvesting Vault, is scheduled to be completed by 2024 and will provide isotopes such as magnesium-28, silicon-32, and calcium-47, among others. For more information on the FRIB and isotope harvesting, click on the links below.
