Development of Indigenous Source of Cobalt Suitable for Radiation Technology Applications

The role of Cobalt-60 as a radiation source in teletherapy for the treatment of cancer needs hardly to be reiterated. Although not used commonly in developed countries, cobalt-60 teletherapy machines can still be regarded as a very viable and cost effective option for the treatment of a sizeable fraction of cancer patients. At present in India, there are only 399 teletherapy units (280 telecobalt units and 119 linacs). As per the IAEA advisory group criteria, it is estimated that more than 1000 teletherapy units will be required in the near future. Considering the large requirements of teletherapy, BARC has designed and developed an advanced telecobalt unit, which was named as Bhabhatron-II. While the success of Bhabhatron-II ‘‘lives’’ at the interface between many disciplines, its dependence on cobalt-60 source is arguably the strongest. The Board of Radiation and Isotope Technology (BRIT) fabricates and supplies 10 to 15 high intensity cobalt-60 sources to cancer hospitals annually for use in cobalt-60 teletherapy units. High specific activity (up to 320 Ci/g) 60Co pellets required for teletherapy is normally imported by BRIT.