Bruce Power – significant cobalt-60 harvest builds on innovation and partnerships

Bruce Power’s most recent cobalt-60 harvest was a significant achievement in groundbreaking innovation, prosperity through partnerships, and boosting the company’s role in Canada’s position as a global superpower in providing life-saving medical isotopes to patients across the globe.

While the Bruce site has been producing cobalt-60 in its units for 40 years, the Unit 8 planned outage marked the first time innovative new heavy adjuster rods were harvested, an initiative aimed at increasing in production without impacting the reactor.

The harvest was also significant in that it was the first under a recently announced expansion of Bruce Power’s partnership with the Saugeen Ojibway Nation, a landmark as the largest investment support for a single Indigenous Nation in Canada.

The Gamzook’aamin aakoziwin Limited Partnership included cobalt-60 for the first time, building on Bruce Power’s commitment to economic reconciliation, ensuring SON benefits from operations in its Territory for decades to come.

“Ontario’s nuclear expertise is not only powering our homes and businesses, it is saving lives through the production of life-saving medical isotopes,” said Stephen Lecce, Minister of Energy and Mines. “Bruce Power’s progress is supporting Ontario’s plan to double medical isotope production by 2030.”

Following the safe and successful harvest during the Unit 8 outage, the cobalt-60 was delivered to Ottawa-based Nordion to be processed and distributed across the globe, bolstering the health-care community’s supply of this key tool in fighting disease, the sterilization of medical equipment, and food safety. This also includes high-specific activity (HSA) cobalt-60, a highly concentrated form used in the Leksell Gamma Knife®, for the non-invasive treatment of complex brain cancers. The treatment is described as virtually painless, usually takes under an hour, and typically vastly improves patients’ quality of life.

“I want to thank the entire team that has led to this success,” said James Scongack, Bruce Power’s Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice-President. “Through our partnerships with Nordion and the Saugeen Ojibway Nation, along with the Canadian Nuclear Isotope Council, Bruce Power and its dedicated team are helping patients all over the world with the production of these crucial medical isotopes.

Canada is a world superpower in the production of medical isotopes and clean energy.

“Nuclear power and energy security are of the utmost importance to Canada’s long-term success and our global leadership role, and so is our production of life saving medical isotopes,” Scongack said. “When it comes to isotopes, the world is counting on Canada.

Learn more about how Bruce Power is helping at www.brucepower.com/isotopes and find out more about its partnerships, visit www.fightingcancertogether.ca.

About Bruce Power:  Bruce Power is an electricity company based in Bruce County, Saugeen Ojibway Nation Territory, Ontario. We are powered by our people. Our 4,200 employees are the foundation of our accomplishments and are proud of the role they play in safely delivering clean, reliable nuclear power to families and businesses across the province and cancer-fighting medical isotopes around the world. Bruce Power has worked hard to build strong roots in Ontario and is committed to protecting the environment and supporting the communities in which we live. Formed in 2001, Bruce Power is a Canadian-owned partnership of TC Energy, OMERS, the Power Workers’ Union and The Society of United Professionals. Learn more at www.brucepower.com and follow us on Facebook, X, LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube.