Deputy Secretary of Energy Mark Menezes is scheduled Friday to visit two Wisconsin companies that aim to help re-establish the United States’ production capacity for the medical isotope molybdenum-99 (Mo-99).
Menezes will tour facilities at SHINE Medical Technologies in Janesville and NorthStar Medical Radioisotopes in Beloit, and meet with executives from both companies, according to an Energy Department press release Tuesday.
“During his visit, the Deputy Secretary will see full size Mo-99 target solution vessels, driving accelerators, integrated safety systems, and the prototype Thermal Cycling and Absorption Process for separating deuterium and tritium gases,” the release says.
NorthStar is currently the only domestic producer of Mo-99, using its RadioGenix System to generate technetium-99 from the decay of the isotope.
SHINE, meanwhile, has applied for a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to operate its Mo-99 production plant. In May, the company said the NRC was on track to issue the license by October 2021.
Last week, SHINE said it had completed an $80 million financing round. Fidelity Management and Research Co. was the top investor in the Series C, according to a SHINE press release.
Technetium-99m is used widely for medical diagnostic imaging, employed in roughly 40,000 procedures daily in the United States, DOE said. The Energy Department’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration has provided $160 million to SHINE, NorthStar, and other companies as part of its mission to promote domestic production that does not require weapon-grade uranium. It is readying another set of cooperative agreements, worth a total of $35 million.
