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.

The current crisis of the Japanese nuclear reactors as a result of the natural disasters should have “a fairly small impact on the U.S. attempts to develop medical isotopes domestically,” Robert W. Atcher, PhD, MBA, leader of the medical isotope task force and past-president of the Society of Nuclear Medicine (SNM), explained in an interview.