In its pursuit to build a $330 million medical isotope production facility in Florida, Coqui RadioPharmaceuticals Corp. plans to submit its construction and licensing application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 2017, a project representative said Tuesday.
Coqui is up against two other companies in a race to become the first American commercial producer of molybdenum-99, a medical isotope used in imaging procedures for cancer, heart disease, and bone and kidney disease. The Western Hemisphere will be without a supplier of moly-99 in March 2018, when Canada’s National Research Universal reactor shuts down. Northwest Medical Isotopes plans to build a $50 million facility at Discovery Ridge research park in Columbia, Mo., with the goal of opening this year. SHINE Medical Technologies plans to build a $100 million facility in Janesville, Wis., with completion scheduled in 2018. In January, SHINE reported that it had raised about half the funding for its facility.
Coqui has partnered with Argentinian nuclear engineering firm INVAP and Nashville-based architectural, engineering, and environmental firm Gresham, Smith and Partners. Kevin Tilbury, a planner with the Nashville firm, said by email Tuesday that Coqui expects to begin construction on the 250,000-square-foot facility in Alachua, Fla., in 2018 and start commercial production in late 2020 or early 2021. In 2015, the team announced the completion of its schematic design, with plans of submitting its NRC license application by the end of 2015.
