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.
The intergovernmental Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) has called for fundamental changes in government policy and cooperation with industry to reform what the agency identified as an “unsustainable economic structure” for the supply of isotopes for nuclear medicine.
Hendricks Holdings has invested in NorthStar Medical Radioisotopes, which will allow the company to introduce new technologies and production methodologies for molybdenum-99 and other radioisotopes.
The FDA has approved Covidien’s production of technetium-99m (Tc-99m) derived from the low-enriched uranium molybdenum-99 (Mo-99) isotope.
Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), chair of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Ark.) have introduced the American Medical Isotopes Production Act of 2011 (S 99), which aims to promote sustainable, domestic production of the medical isotope molybdenum-99 (Mo-99).
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