The legislation allows three years to start the initiatives even though the Chalk River Reactor, which supplies the bulk of our Mo-99, is shutting down in 2016. Congress is expecting it will take seven years to get the program fully in place. But there's an out. If the program doesn't work as planned the U.S. can continue to export HEU. With this kind of planning and these inconsistencies don't expect shortages to end or an alternative to be in place any time soon.
On Jan. 7, 2013,
Clinical Innovation and Technology reported on an article to appear in the February 2013 edition of
Journal of Nuclear Medicine, in which Maroor R.A. Pillai and colleagues with Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in Mumbai, India, note that research reactors that could be used for LEU production of Mo-99 are in sufficient supply around the world but need retrofitting. The authors see this as a manageable issue. But they point to barriers to market entry that exist because of government subsidies to many reactor sites.
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On Feb. 7, 2012, Aunt Minnie reported on GE Hitachi Nuclear Power's efforts to develop a process in an Illinois power reactor for the production of Mo-99. The process worked but the economics didn't. They were unable to compete against the existing subsidized programs.
2 When they can compete I suspect they will return to the market.
No one is surprised it takes time and money to make changes to existing systems. If Congress has an interest in the supply of Mo-99 they could take up the GE Hitachi solution; it's ready. Or they could invest in the University of Missouri reactor to develop processing capabilities. I believe these solutions can be implemented by the time the Chalk River Reactor shuts down in 2016.
As mentioned earlier, this legislation is not meant to create a reliable supply ofMo-99. It is meant to stop the shipment of HEU. Although it's commendable to lessen a terrorist's potential for obtaining HEU by eliminating shipments from the U.S. for Mo-99 production, there are some 70 tons of HEU in the world.
If HEU security is the issue, then solve the problem in the U.S. Build our own supply of affordable Mo-99 for generator production. If we go the route of producing with LEU or accelerators, not only will it take time to develop, regulate and implement, it will be costly leading to a dramatic increases in the cost of Tc-99m. This could eventually obsolesce nuclear medicine.
For the leaders of the nuclear medicine, and more broadly the diagnostic imaging, community, it's time we stopped being grateful every time we get tossed a leftover bone and boldly step forward with practical and affordable solutions to our problems.
