Bruce Power President and CEO Mike Rencheck with a $5,000 donation to the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation, with 14-year old Jadyn Schill of Mount Albert, Ontario. (photo by Jordan MacKinnon) Bruce Power President and CEO Mike Rencheck with a $5,000 donation to the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation, with 14-year old Jadyn Schill of Mount Albert, Ontario. (photo by Jordan MacKinnon)
Midwestern

Bruce Power Expands Its Role In Cancer Treatments

Bruce Power is planning to expand the harvesting of radioisotopes in its reactors.

The company has signed a memorandum of understanding with AREVA Canada, which will build and supply technology to harvest short-lived radioisotopes from Bruce Power's reactors while they remain in operation.

AREVA Canada President and Chief Operating Officer Bill Cooper says the agreement builds on Bruce Power's ongoing harvest of Cobalt-60, pointing out the technology that has been developed is likely the first of its kind in the world.

"Adding this capability of being able to make these short-lived isotopes online is quite an advancement," says Cooper. "It will probably be the first in the world once we get it commercialized."

Cooper says the radioisotopes can be used in an array of medical procedures, including diagnostic imaging, as well as targeted cancer treatments like gamma knife technology, which is a minimally invasive treatment for brain cancer patients.

On hand for the announcement was 14-year old Jadyn Schill of Mount Albert, Ontario, who has been battling brain cancer since she was 5 years old.

Schill says she's not physically able to receive further radiation treatments and doctors are unwilling to perform further brain surgery on her, so she turned to gamma knife as perhaps her last resort to beat cancer. She says gamma knife not only gives her hope, but has greatly improved her quality of life.

"You feel those scars and where they were inside you and you don't feel well [with traditional brain surgery]," says Schill. "But gamma knife, I was [knocked] out and it was like did anything even happen? So it was amazing."

Schill says she was released from hospital about an hour after gamma knife treatment.

Bruce Power also presented Schill with a cheque for $5,000 as a donation to the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation.

Bruce Power President and CEO Mike Rencheck [left] signs a memorandum of understanding with AREVA Canada President and Chief Operating Officer, Bill Cooper. (photo by Jordan MacKinnon)

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