Electricity woes hamper South Africa’s radioisotope scale-up

Country’s main science funder missed revenue and production targets due to rolling blackouts

South Africa’s unreliable electricity supply has harmed plans to grow the country’s lucrative radioisotope production business, MPs were told last week.

Rolling blackouts—dubbed loadshedding—meant the machines producing the radioisotopes could not run as planned in the 2022-23 financial year, chief executive officer of the National Research Foundation told a parliamentary committee on 20 October.