Coquà Pharma completes design of medial isotope facility
Coquà RadioPharmaceuticals Corp has completed the schematic design of
its $330 million medical isotope production facility to be built in
Alachua, Florida. Coquà Pharma will soon enter the detailed design phase
as it readies to submit its construction licence application to the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission by the end of 2015.
The Puerto Rican company, based in Coral Gables, aims to become the
first US commercial supplier of the lifesaving radioisotope
Molybdenum-99 (Mo-99), which is used in 20 million procedures each year
in the USA.
Mo-99 is used in medical equipment to generate Technetium-99m
(Tc-99m), the most widely used isotope in nuclear medicine. Mo-99 has a
half-life of only 66 hours, meaning that supplies need to be constantly
replenished.
Canada's National Research Universal reactor, built at Chalk River in
1957, produces 40% of world supply of Mo-99. It is due to be shut down
in March 2018.
http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/C-Coqui-Pharma-completes-design-of-medial-isotope-facility-09041502.html
A young nuclear engineer is testing an idea for cleaner, safer nuclear power plants that use salt instead of uranium.http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2015/04/08/nuclear-reactor-molten-salt
