WHAT IS THE SOUTHWESTERN ONTARIO ISOTOPE COALITION? Led by the Nuclear Innovation Institute, the City of Owen Sound and the Canadian Nuclear Isotope Council (CNIC), the Southwestern Ontario Isotope Coalition (SOIC) is a network of collaborative regional partners that believe in the promise and potential of the isotope sector across southwestern Ontario. Formed in June 2023, the SOIC is taking a collaborative approach by rising above typical municipal boundaries and regional constraints with a vision to capitalize on partnerships while raising awareness of southwestern Ontario’s critical role in the isotope sector of the future. Within Southwestern Ontario, a diverse network of companies contributes to the production of goods that fuel the rapidly developing isotope sector. This strategic alliance aims to leverage the region’s strengths while also encouraging innovation and integration across the isotope value chain.
WHAT IS OUR ROLE? SOIC will work alongside the CNIC to convey the message of the region’s role in the isotope ecosystem to federal and provincial governments, policymakers, and leaders in healthcare. The SOIC will help attract public and private investment to expand the region’s position within the global isotope ecosystem.
We are STRONGER when we work TOGETHER. Learn more at soic.ca
We will help move the needle on these barriers to Canada unleashing its isotope potential:* • Infrastructure • Logistics • Market adoption • Economic • Labour and training * Identified in the CNIC’s Isotopes for Hope report
As Canada’s international leadership grows, communities like southwestern Ontario must find new methods to foster partnerships and advance a common vision.
WHAT ARE ISOTOPES?
CHIPPEWAS OF NAWASH
LAKE HURON
GEORGIAN BAY
SAUGEEN FIRST NATION OWEN SOUND
COLLINGWOOD PORT ELGIN
TIVERTON
BRUCE
GREY
Medical isotopes are used to both diagnose and treat medical conditions like cancer as well as sterilize medical equipment like gloves, gowns and masks. Without lifesaving nuclear medicine, we wouldn’t have many of the modern treatments for these conditions that we have today.
KINCARDINE WALKERTON
HURON GODERICH
TORONTO
OAKVILLE
LAKE ONTARIO
REGIONAL PARTNERS: COLLINGWOOD
OWEN SOUND
TIVERTON
• Isowater
• • • • • • •
• Bruce Power • Kinectrics
GODERICH
• Gateway Centre of Excellence in Rural Health KINCARDINE
• Framatome • Municipality of Kincardine
A.I. VALI Inc. Brightshores Health System BWXT City of Owen Sound Georgian College Grey County STEVCON Packaging & Logistics Ltd.
PORT ELGIN OAKVILLE
• Promation
• Nuclear Innovation Institute • Town of Saugeen Shores
TORONTO
• Canadian Nuclear Isotope Council WALKERTON
• Corporation of the County of Bruce • Municipality of Brockton • Western Ontario Wardens’ Caucus
HOW ARE ISOTOPES DEVELOPED? Bruce Power creates some of its isotopes using the innovative Isotope Production System, which is basically like a big Keurig machine: scientists put ingredients (a base isotope) into the nuclear reactor where it collects excess neutrons, “brewing” the isotope they want. These “raw materials” are then processed by pharmaceutical companies both in Canada and abroad.
Isotopes production chain
target material
target irradiation
processing
radiopharmacy compounding
hospital
patient
QUICK FACTS
More than 40 million
procedures performed annually around the world use medical isotopes.1
About 760,000
diagnostic procedures and 76,000 radiation procedures are performed in Canada each year.2
https://cna.ca/nuclear-medicine/medical-isotopes Ibid. 3 https://natural-resources.canada.ca/our-natural-resources/mineralsmining/minerals-metals-facts/uranium-and-nuclear-power-facts/20070 1
2
More than 70%
of the world’s supply of an important isotope called Cobalt-60 is developed in Canada’s six nuclear power plants, the largest of which is Bruce Power.3