Abstract ID: 17100 Title: US Supply of Medical Isotopes
The supply of medical isotopes has been severely impacted over the past couple of years. Although the United States
consumes 50% of the Molybdenum-99/Technetium-99m produced in the world, none is produced in the United
States. Through its Global Threat Reduction Initiative (GTRI), the National Nuclear Security Administration’s
(NNSA) is working to minimize and, to the extent possible, eliminate the use of highly enriched uranium (HEU) in
civilian nuclear applications, including in the production of medical radioisotopes.
Dr. Parrish Staples, NNSA’s Director of European and African Threat Reduction will present an overview of the
GTRI’s efforts on US medical isotope production including an overview of the international HEU minimization
projects to provide assistance to convert existing Mo-99 production from HEU to LEU, focusing on the South
African project.
NNSA is currently developing projects to accelerate the establishment of domestic commercial sources of Mo-99
without the use of HEU. NNSA is working on several Cooperative Agreements to potential commercial Mo-99
producers, whose projects are in the most advanced stages of development, accelerating their efforts to begin
producing Mo-99 in quantities adequate to the U.S. medical community’s demand by the end of 2013. These
commercial producers each use a different non-HEU technology, in support of our strategy to diversify the supply
chain and move away from reliance on a sole technology and a limited number of facilities, such as used by today’s
foreign producers. Four co-operative agreements have been issued reflecting different approaches for production –
Neutron Capture (General Electric [GE]-Hitachi); LEU Solution Reactor Technology (Babcock and Wilcox
[B&W]); and Accelerator Technology (NorthStar Medical Radioisotopes, LLC and Morgridge Institute for
Research). A presentation by each of the four NNSA’s co-operative agreement partners will follow with a question
and answer session.