Could this startup's compact nuclear reactors revolutionize cancer detection?
As cancer rates in the West, and globally, tack upwards due to lifestyle and environmental pollution, so does the need for the nuclear isotopes used in detecting those cancers in a medical setting. But with many reactors built in the 70s and the 80s scheduled for shut down, the materials used are becoming rarer and more expensive. Now, a startup from Bristol, UK hopes to ramp up production of these materials by using a new, radical, technology.
Astral Systems, cofounded by Talmon Firestone and Dr. Tom Wallce-Smith, employs something called multistate fusion (MSF) technology in its ‘compact reactors’, enabling the increased supply of the nuclear isotopes used in modern medicine. These reactors are in fact so compact that they can fit on the average desk.
Astral has now closed over £4.5M investment led by Austria-based VC Speedinvest and UK-based Playfair.
The company says its approach will commercialize MSF technology, achieving better performance with greater efficiency and lower cost than traditional reactors.