New radio-isotope facility in Philadelphia will make rare cancer-fighting material

Pennsylvania state leaders are celebrating plans to bring a radio-isotope manufacturing facility to the commonwealth. TerraPower Isotopes plans to spend $450 million on the project in Philadelphia’s Bellwether District, creating at least 225 jobs. The facility will make Actinium-225, a rare radioactive material used to help create new cancer drugs. Those drugs are designed to deliver radiation directly to cancer cells, which can help doctors target tumors more precisely.

PHILADELPHIA —

Pennsylvania state leaders are celebrating plans to bring a radio-isotope manufacturing facility to the commonwealth.

TerraPower Isotopes plans to spend $450 million on the project in Philadelphia’s Bellwether District, creating at least 225 jobs.

The facility will make Actinium-225, a rare radioactive material used to help create new cancer drugs.

Those drugs are designed to deliver radiation directly to cancer cells, which can help doctors target tumors more precisely.