The U.S. made phasing out HEU shipment a directive in the Energy Policy Act of 1992 but made a provision for exports related to medical isotope needs until a sufficient domestic supply could be made with LEU (low enriched uranium) targets alone. It helped foreign reactors convert these shipments to LEU, which is enriched with less than 20% of U235, and invested in other initiatives to reduce the presence of HEU.

NorthStar manufactures Mo-99 at the University of Missouri Research Reactor, which is one of the two remaining U.S. university research reactors to be fueled with HEU. The university says it will convert it when a compatible LEU fuel is developed. Niowave says it will use niobium-based superconducting accelerators to produce Mo-99 from LEU in a noncritical reactor, and SHINE will use a fission process to do the same.


The NNSA is likely to supply one more fuel shipment of weapons-grade HEU each to the Belgian Reactor 2 and the Institut Laue-Langevin research reactor in France. SCK CEN, which runs the Belgian Reactor 2, says it will convert it to LEU fuel by 2026. The Institut Lau-Langevin is scheduled to switch to LEU in 2031.

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