A National Academy of Sciences panel has concluded that commercial volumes of molybdenum-99 can be produced cost-effectively with low-enriched uranium, a finding that now allows federal regulators to pressure manufacturers to end their reliance on nuclear bomb-grade uranium for Mo- 99 production.
The 13-member Committee on Medical Isotope Production without Enriched Uranium determined in a report published in January that conversion to low-enriched uranium (LEU) is feasible without boosting production costs by more than 10%, a goal set by Congress when it ordered the committee's formation. The report found that conversion is possible at Chalk River, ON, and Petten, the Netherlands, the two main producers of Mo-99 used in the U.S. It also suggests, however, that generating the local political will to make the conversions will be challenging.
High-enriched uranium (HEU) is typically drawn from U.S. or Russian strategic stockpiles of decommissioned nuclear weapons. Its transportation across international borders has raised security concerns about a possible terrorist attack or accident.
The report concludes that the technical feasibility of conversion is not in question. An all-LEU system has operated in Argentina since 2002. A reactor near Sydney, Australia, will probably begin producing Mo-99 with LEU fuel and targets soon, and an all-LEU reactor is under construction near Cairo in Egypt.
• Atomic Energy Canada Ltd., the semipublic corporation that oversees Canadian isotope production, was urged to remodel the now-shut-down Maple 1 and Maple 2 reactors at Chalk River. The committee reasoned that reconstruction—including even new reactor cores for the two troubled facilities— can be finished by 2016, the new extended termination date for the National Research Universal Reactor at Chalk River that now serves as North America's main source of Mo-99.
• The Nuclear Research and Consultancy Group in the Netherlands was advised how to convert to LEUbased production at its High Flux Reactor in Petten in five years without waiting another two years for the completion of its planned replacement reactor at Pallas, the Netherlands.
• Operators of the Belgium Reactor 2 and the Osiris research reactors at Saclay Centre near Paris were informed that they could convert to LEU by adopting the same Mo-99 target design under development for the HFR reactor and its Pallas replacement.
The panel urged the FDA to streamline regulatory approval of radiopharmaceuticals made with LEU-based Mo-99. It advised that Congress should subsidize the design and development of domestic production capabilities and tighten regulations against the use of HEU-based pharmaceuticals and HEU export.
The report also said that opportunities may exist for the U.S. State Department to exert diplomatic pressure when encouraging countries to convert.
“That would be the logical next step,” said committee member Dr. Steve Larson, nuclear medicine director at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Institute.
Several projects are moving forward independently to reestablish Mo-99 production in the U.S. Radiopharmaceutical manufacturer Covidien and nuclear power plant builder Babcock & Wilcox announced a partnership in January to build a new plant. A $40 million upgrade to the University of Missouri Research Reactor in Columbia was announced in 2008. It may meet up to half of U.S. demand for the isotope. Each project will take up to six years to complete.
