One of the most important IPEN services, toward its compromise to improve the quality of life of Brazilian society, is the production of radiopharmaceutics for nuclear medicine diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. Distributed to hospitals and clinicals Brazil wide, they were used, in 2004, to attend more than 2.3 million patients, an increase of about 10% relative to the year before comparable to the USA and Europe markets. In special, the production of the FDG-18 radiopharmaceutic, used for Positron Emission Tomography - PET diagnostics, doubled compared to 2003.

       Besides the progress that have been reached by the IPEN in the radiopharmaceutics area other achievements, also relevants, had succeed during this period among them: the beginning of the operation of the Cobalt-60 multipurpose industrial irradiator, projected and constructed by IPEN professionals; the technological domain of Iodine-125 seeds production for prostate cancer treatment; the important results obtained in the IPEN program dealing with fuel cell and hydrogen reform ( PROCEL ), the high intensity (TW) Table Top Laser System (T3) under construction that presently reached more than 10 GW of peak power; the support on chemical environmental technologies; the synthesis, purification and characterization of recombinant human pituitary hormone; the upgrade and the increase of the utilization of the IPEN nuclear research reactors facilities, and the replacement of its original control and safety rods for new ones fabricated at IPEN; the conclusion of the IPEN neutron diffractometer renewal; the development of advanced materials for industrial and medicine applications, and the substancial increase in the engineering services in the areas of nuclear reactors, and other energy systems, now ISO certified.

       The IPEN Postgraduate Program on Nuclear Technology, grade 6 in the CAPES evaluation, has maintained its high level academic performance and internationally recognized expertise.

Dr. Claudio Rodrigues
IPEN Superintendent