Inject a tiny radioactive tracer, then image how the body works, not just how it looks. A 2 to 4 year program and one national exam (Quebec has its own).
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Pay, the path, pros and cons and the facts on one printable page. Counsellors: send it to a student from your own email in one click.
Programs in the fields this career usually comes through. Each has its own page: what it takes to get in, the courses you need and what it costs.
The median pay is about $83,000 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $62,000 at the lower end to about $106,000 at the upper end. The source is listed under Sources at the end of this page.
2 to 4 years after high school, on the usual route.
$15,000 to $40,000 all in for tuition, fees, exams and kit. Living costs are not counted.
It depends where you work. You need a licence, certificate or registration in Alberta, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Quebec and Saskatchewan. Elsewhere there is none to hold, though many employers still ask for training or a certificate.
Good demand nationally, from government outlook data. Demand varies by region, so check your area.
Or read the whole thing here
What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Median
$83,000
Lower end
$62,000
Upper end
$106,000
Job Bank's national median is $40 an hour, about $83,000 a year at 40 hours a week. The lower end ($29.81) and upper end ($51.12) are the bottom and top of the wage range for everyone in the group. Job Bank pools all medical radiation technologists (X-ray, nuclear medicine, radiation therapy and MRI (magnetic resonance imaging)) under one code, so this is the figure for the whole group.
$46 an hour
The group's median in Alberta, about $96,000 a year
Ontario is close behind at $45, and Quebec has the lowest median, $35. Hospital pay is set by union grids that differ by province.
Roughly, all in
$15,000 to $40,000
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
The low end is a two year accredited college program at the cheaper end, plus books, uniforms, immunizations and a police check, the CAMRT (Canadian Association of Medical Radiation Technologists) exam and your first year of provincial registration. The high end is a four year joint college and university degree at higher tuition with the same fees on top. Registration is an annual cost for as long as you work, not a one time payment. Clinical placements are part of the program and are usually unpaid, so plan for a stretch with little income.
Roughly $12,000 to $35,000 in tuition. Joint college and university degrees cost more and take 4 years.
A defined-benefit pension
One that pays a set amount every month for life. HOOPP (the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan) in Ontario hospitals. Similar plans elsewhere.
Extended health and dental
On-call and shift premiums
Less overnight work than X-ray, but big hospitals run on-call for emergencies like blood clots in the lung, with callback pay on top.
Paid vacation and sick days
Typically 3 to 4 weeks to start.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
One discipline of medical radiation technology, with its own program and exam.
High school
Grades 11 and 12
Grade 12 physics, chemistry, biology, math and English. Chemistry matters more here than in X-ray. Quebec programs ask for Secondary V math and chemistry.
Accredited nuclear medicine program
2 to 4 years
A college diploma or a joint college-university degree. Radiation physics, radiopharmacy (preparing the tracers), anatomy, patient care, then months of full-time unpaid clinical placement. Some programs want a year of university science first.
Write the CAMRT (Canadian Association of Medical Radiation Technologists) exam
After graduation
The national certification exam. Nuclear medicine is written on the second day of each sitting, in January, May and September. In Quebec the order's own admission exam replaces it.
Register with your provincial regulator
A few weeks
In Ontario that is the CMRITO (College of Medical Radiation and Imaging Technologists of Ontario).
Chemistry
Required. You prepare radioactive drugs by hand.
Physics
Required outside Quebec. Radioactive decay, detectors and shielding.
Biology
Required outside Quebec. You image organs working.
Math
Dose calculations and half-lives, every single day.
Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, PEI (Prince Edward Island) and Newfoundland and Labrador register medical radiation technologists. Ontario's CMRITO (College of Medical Radiation and Imaging Technologists of Ontario) covers five specialties: radiography, radiation therapy, nuclear medicine, magnetic resonance and sonography. Where there is no regulator, employers require CAMRT (Canadian Association of Medical Radiation Technologists) certification. You register in the discipline you trained in. Adding a second one means more school and another exam.
In Quebec it is a 3 year DEC (Diploma of College Studies) taught only in French, and you join a Quebec order instead of writing the national exam.
Finish Secondary V
Age 16 or 17
With Secondary V math (Technical and Scientific, or Science) and Secondary V chemistry.
Nuclear Medicine Technology DEC (142.F0)
3 years
At Collège Ahuntsic in Montreal, or Cégep de Sainte-Foy in Quebec City, which teaches it with Ahuntsic and the CHU de Québec (Quebec City university hospital). Fall start only.
Apply in French
Winter before you start
There is no English program. If you did not go to school in French in Quebec or France, Ahuntsic gives a French admission test ($20). Ahuntsic applications go through SRAM (the Montreal admissions service) by March 1.
Register as a student with the order
First term
The OTIMROEPMQ (Ordre des technologues en imagerie médicale, en radio-oncologie et en électrophysiologie médicale du Québec, the Quebec order of imaging and radiation technologists). About $200, in your first term.
Pass the order's admission exam
Last term
In your last term, about $1,000, written online. 3 years of full-time study in French meets the order's French rule.
CAMRT, only if you may leave
Any time after
The Quebec permit is for Quebec. To work in another province, the order points you to the CAMRT (Canadian Association of Medical Radiation Technologists).
Colleges also charge small registration and student fees each term.
Things you don't need, but that help.
PET (positron emission tomography)
Advanced cancer imaging, often combined with CT (computed tomography). Few people trained, steady demand.
CT (computed tomography)
Many nuclear medicine cameras are now hybrid machines, so CT (computed tomography) skills are expected. A short post-diploma course.
Radiopharmacy
Preparing and quality-testing the tracers. Some technologists move into commercial radiopharmacies.
Theranostics
Using radioactive drugs to treat cancer, not just image it. A fast-growing area in big cancer centres.
Volunteer in a hospital
Calming a patient before an injection is half the skill.
Comfort with chemistry lab work
Pipettes, syringes and quality checks every morning.
Careful, methodical habits
Radiation safety rules are strict and every dose is logged.
Companies that make radiopharmaceuticals and hybrid scanners hire experienced technologists as applications specialists and sales support. It means travel and regular hours. Some technologists move into it after several years in a hospital.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
Early start in the hot lab, drawing up the day's doses behind lead shielding and checking each one. Then patients: a bone scan for cancer spread, a heart stress test with a tracer, a thyroid scan, a lung scan for a suspected clot. You inject, wait for the tracer to travel, position the patient under a gamma camera and acquire images for 20 to 40 minutes each. Between scans you process images for the physician, run quality control on the camera and manage radioactive waste. Mostly weekdays, with some on-call.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
The CAMRT (Canadian Association of Medical Radiation Technologists) exam costs $980 and runs in January, May and September. Nuclear medicine, radiation therapy and MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) candidates all write on day two.
Job Bank counted about 28,100 medical radiation technologists in Canada in 2023, only 22% of them 50 or older, and rates the outlook good or very good in every province where it gives a rating.
Every list is built from the same numbers shown above, so you can see where this career sits next to the others.
Diagnostics and lab first, then the rest of the field. See every career in health.
Last checked October 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in Canadian dollars, based on Government of Canada Job Bank wage data and published salary grids. They vary by province, employer and experience. Tuition is for domestic students. How every figure on this site is sourced and checked.
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