Institute for Transuranium Elements

The Institute for Transuranium Elements (ITU) is a nuclear research institute in Karlsruhe, Germany. The ITU is one of the seven institutes of the Joint Research Centre, a Directorate-General of the European Commission. The ITU has about 300 staff. Its specialists have access to an extensive range of advanced facilities, many unavailable elsewhere in Europe.

The mission of ITU is to provide the scientific foundation for the protection of the European citizen against risks associated with the handling and storage of highly radioactive material. ITU's prime objectives are to serve as a reference centre for basic actinide research, to contribute to an effective safety and safeguards system for the nuclear fuel cycle, and to study technological and medical applications of radionuclides/actinides.

Normally entry for visitors to the ITU is by prior invitation only for security reasons; a person wishing to enter the site as a visitor will be required to hand over their passport, before passing through a combined metal and radiation detector. The details of the devices used to test visitors for radioactive and nuclear materials are not public knowledge (for security reasons). Also on entry visitors are subject to a search by a security officer. All bags are examined using an x-ray machine similar to that used in an airport.

The work of the ITU can be divided into a series of smaller activities.

A cancer treatment involving the production of antibodies bearing alpha particle-emitting radioisotopes which bind to cancer cells. The idea is to create a "magic bullet" which will seek and destroy cancer wherever it is hidden within the body. This treatment has reached clinical trials.

Bismuth-213 is one of the isotopes which has been used: this is made by the alpha decay of actinium-225, which in turn is made by the irradiation of radium-226 with a cyclotron.

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