The search for a domestic supply of the radioisotope technetium-99m (tech-99) may have to begin anew as General Electric has temporarily put the brakes on a project at an Illinois nuclear power plant that would have produced molybdenum-99 (Mo-99), which decays into tech-99.

GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH) and Exelon are partnering to study the feasibility of producing molybdenum-99 (Mo-99), the most commonly used medical isotope, at Clinton Power Station, a nuclear power plant in Clinton, Ill.