国内の医療用放射性核種の供給

The supply of radionuclides for medical use in Japan

核医学は，放射性核種（radionuclide）を含んだ医薬品を用いて，様々な疾患の診断，特に疾患の性状などの機能的な面からの診断や，がんを主な対象とした疾患の治療について研究する学問分野であり，放射線医学の中で重要な位置を占めている。

The supply of radionuclides is an essential issue to conduct nuclear medicine. These radionuclides are mainly produced using accelerators and nuclear reactors. Radionuclides produced by accelerators, which often emit photons or positrons and are used for diagnostic imaging tests, can be domestically manufactured. However, radionuclides mainly produced by nuclear reactors such as ⁹⁹Mo, ¹³¹I and ²²⁵Ac are imported from overseas and their supply sometimes encounters problems. To overcome these problems, the action plan to produce major radionuclides for medical use inside Japan was proposed under the leadership of Japanese governments in 2022 and this domestic production of medical radionuclides is expected to activate the practice and researches of nuclear medicine in Japan.