The National Nuclear Security Administration hopes its efforts to boost the domestic industry for Molybdenum-99 will result in commercial-scale availability of the medical isotope a couple years from now, according to an annual nonproliferation report the agency released before the holidays.
Under its partnership with four U.S. companies the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) “aims to increase Mo-99 produced by American companies and get commercial scale quantities of this critical medical isotope to market by the end of 2023,” according to the latest “Prevent, Counter, and Respond—NNSA’s Plan to Reduce Global Nuclear Threats” report.
Congress requires the agency to annually publish this unclassified report, which is the nonproliferation office’s late-calendar-year companion to the Stockpile Stewardship and Management Plan: an unclassified, annual snapshot of the nuclear weapons production complex that has yet to appear this year, with the Joe Biden administration’s nuclear posture review still in the works.
Late last year, the Department of Energy announced it would not seek permission to continue exporting highly enriched uranium to overseas producers of Mo-99. The Donald Trump administration unilaterally extended exports by two years in January 2020, the first time that had ever been done.
Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm could have extended exports by another two years but instead chose to rip off the bandaid and press on with NNSA’s effort to jump start the domestic industry, which will not rely on highly enriched uranium to produce Mo-99, the parent isotope of Technetium 99 — a gamma emitter used for medical imaging.
Congress mandated the current round of funding for domestic production of Mo-99 in 2012.
