Steve Lynch
Project Manager
Research and Test Reactor Licensing Branch
It’s
a little known fact: One of the most useful radioisotopes in medicine
comes mainly from highly enriched uranium (HEU), the very stuff that can
be turned into a nuclear weapon. We’re talking about technicium-99m, or
Tc-99m—which has been called the world’s most important medical
isotope. It’s used to diagnose a variety of illnesses in millions of
procedures each year in the United States alone.
Tc-99m is created from another radioisotope, molybdenum-99, which traditionally has been produced abroad from HEU sources. A
![stethoscope]()
supply
shortage that delayed patient treatments several years ago, coupled
with the desire to reduce proliferation risks, prompted the world
community to find better ways of securing the future supply of this
isotope.
In
2012, Congress passed the American Medical Isotope Production Act to
support private efforts to develop medical radioisotope production
facilities using other methods and begin phasing out the export of HEU
for medical isotope production. The National Nuclear Security
Administration, through its Global Threat Reduction Initiative, has been
promoting domestic Mo-99 production using different technologies
through formal cooperative agreements with four commercial partners.
These
partners and several other companies have said they are interested in
producing Mo-99 in the U.S. They have proposed using several different
technologies, ranging from non-power reactors to accelerator-driven, sub
critical solution tanks. To support the transition to new technologies,
the NRC is preparing to receive and review applications for
construction permits and operating licenses for new facilities. In fact,
we are now reviewing the first medical radioisotope production facility
construction permit application, received earlier this year.
But
not all Mo-99 production facilities will need an NRC license. While
reactors fall strictly under NRC regulation, accelerator technologies
that do not use enriched uranium or plutonium would be regulated by the
states.
Companies,
facilities and technicians involved in producing and administering
Tc-99m to patients may also need to be licensed by either the NRC or an
Agreement State.
(There are 37 Agreement States, which have formal agreements with the
NRC allowing them to regulate certain nuclear materials, including
medical isotopes).
For
more information on the role of the NRC and other agencies in
regulating the medical use of nuclear materials, visit the NRC
webpage.
Kara Mattioli also contributed to this post.
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