I have blogged before about critical radioactive isotopes used in medical diagnosis and procedures. One of the most important is molybdenum-99. It decays to technetium-99 which has a short halflife and other isotopes. Technetium-99 is injected into patients as a radiotracer for medical imaging of tumors.
Most of the Mo-99 used in the U.S. is created by irradiating enriched uranium originally made for nuclear weapons. The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration ships the enriched uranium to five processing plants located in Australia, Canada, Europe and South Africa. Private companies pay for irradiation services, forward the isotopes to the processing plants and then ship the Mo-99 produced back to the U.S.
One big problem with Mo-99 is that it only has a 66 hour half-life. There are routine travel delays that can slow down international shipments. Some pilots on some airlines can refuse to carry radioactive materials. Any problems at the reactors can slow down production which can interfere with shipping schedules. And speaking of problems with the reactors, some of which are over fifty years old, often have to shut down for repairs. Canada recently cancelled production of Mo-99 at their Chalk River, Ontario reactor in 2016 because it would have cost seventy million dollars to repair the old reactor.
All these problems with production and shipping lead to shortages. When two reactors had to be shut down in 2009, there were serious Mo-99 shortages that lasted two years. Doctors had to resort to the use of more expensive and toxic imaging agents. The shutting down of the Chalk River reactor will likely lead to severe shortages of Mo-9.
Taking these problems into account, the Obama administration in the U.S. passed legislation in 2013 to promote the production of Mo-99. A few companies have signed on to the program and are getting millions of dollars to produce Mo-99 in the U.S. Concern about nuclear proliferation is encouraging participating companies to find a way to make Mo-99 without the use of enriched uranium.
NorthStar Medical Radioisotopes in Beloit, Wisconsin has received fifty million dollars to develop a safe process for making Mo-99. SHINE Medical Technologies in Janesville, Wisconsin got twenty-five million dollars from the Department of Energy to help them build a one hundred million dollar facility. They have designed eight particle accelerators for the facility. With approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, they will be able to proceed as soon as they can raise addition funds and satisfy a bunch of regulation. Originally, the company said that they could be producing Mo-99 by 2015 but now they say that they will be in production by 2020. The CEO of the company believes that their plans will succeed. He said that “If we don’t have significant production soon, we will continue to export highly enriched uranium. And the National Nuclear Security Administration will have failed their mission.”
The demand for Mo-99 will only increase. More of the old reactors will inevitably be retired. If a new production method is not found, there could be very serious shortages that will threaten peoples’ lives.
