(Yicai Global) Oct. 24 -- The economic output of China's nuclear technologies is more than CNY300 billion (USD42.4 billion) a year and is growing at an annual rate of over 20 percent, online news portal Stdaily reported. But the sector is still dependent on imports for most of its isotope raw materials, hampering development.

Nuclear technology applications in China account for just 0.4 percent of gross domestic product, compared with around 2 percent in developed countries, Lei Zengguang, chief engineer at China National Nuclear Corporation and chairman of the China Isotope and Radiation Association, said at an industry forum yesterday.

Insufficient production capacity and a dearth of raw materials are the main restricting factors, he said. CNNC is considering building low temperature thermal and other reactors to produce isotopes such as molybdenum, or Mo-99, for medical use, he added. China can already produce a small amount of radioactive iodine, or I-131, an isotope used in medical therapies as a treatment and diagnostic tool.

Apart from generating electricity, nuclear technology can be applied in a number of fields, including industry, agriculture, medicine, archeology and environmental protection. Fifty-five percent of applications are in the industrial sector, CIRC Executive Chairman Wu Jian said. The second-biggest sector is healthcare at 18 percent.

Isotopes are two or more kinds of atoms of the same chemical element. They are listed at the same place in the periodic table and have almost identical chemical properties. However, they have a different atomic mass, resulting in non-identical features in mass spectrometry, radioactive decay and physical properties. These differences enable them to bring special applications to industrial, agricultural and scientific research.