The next witness was Steven M. Larson, M.D., Chief, Nuclear Medicine Service, Department of Radiology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Vice-Chairman, Committee on Medical Isotope Production Without Highly Enriched Uranium, National Academy of Sciences. The clinic Dr. Larson directs at Sloan-Kettering sees over 110 patients per day. Two-thirds of those patients' diagnostic procedures utilize technetium-99. Dr. Larson recounted from a personal perspective how shutdowns of foreign reactors have interrupted supplies of the isotope to his clinic and others, and how more shortages are expected. Dr. Larson then described the National Academy's report in detail. He explained that the report found the anticipated average cost increase of conversion to non-HEU isotope production would be less than ten percent for most current large-scale producers.

The report also identifies additional steps that the Department of Energy (DOE) and others may take to improve the likelihood of medical isotope production, including the DOE making technical expertise available to producers for conversion-related research; diplomatic pressure on countries still using HEU to convert; the FDA working with industry experts for an understanding of probable FDA requirements in regulatory approvals for low-enriched uranium molybdenum-99; congressional policy directions on conversion and phase-out of HEU exports; and incentives for development of domestic sources. H.R. 3275 contains many of these steps.


Finally, the subcommittee heard from Michael Duffy, Vice President and General Counsel, Lantheus Medical Imaging. Mr. Duffy testified that due to unscheduled outages and shutdowns in foreign reactors, molybdenum-99 supply is now a chronic crisis; the U.S. and international demand is beyond the capability of the global reactor community to supply. An additional concern is that molybdenum-99 continually decays from the time of its manufacture with a half-life of approximately 66 hours; that makes a shorter transport time necessary for less decay and more efficient use.

Mr. Duffy explained Lantheus is considering different U.S.-based opportunities for molybdenum-99 in the short- and long-term, as U.S-based supply solutions are more attractive. However, Mr. Duffy pointed out, the opportunities require cooperation between regulators and project sponsors on various aspects. In addition, public partnership is necessary to level the field with government support of reactors outside of the U.S. Mr. Duffy suggested that government financial support in grants or loans may be the key to the viability of domestic producers.

The hearing testimony may be accessed at: http://energycommerce.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1735:the-american-medical-isotopes-production-act-of-2009&catid=130:subcommittee-on-energy-and-the-environment&Itemid=71

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