A group of 11 nuclear security and health experts on Wednesday urged the heads of the U.S. Departments of Energy and Health and Human Services to find that the federal government no longer needs to export weapon-grade uranium for foreign production of the medical isotope molybdenum-99 (Mo-99).
The American Medical Isotopes Production Act (AMIPA), enacted in January 2013, established a seven-year deadline for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to stop approving license requests for export of highly enriched uranium for medical purposes. However, that action would be based on a determination from the energy and health and human services secretaries that the United States has enough Mo-99 produced without highly enriched uranium targets for patient needs, and that exports of domestic material can stop. If the agency chiefs conclude otherwise, exports can be extended for up to six years.
The Department of Energy is taking public comments on the question through Dec. 27. The deadline for a decision under AMIPA is Jan. 2, 2020, according to the experts’ letter to Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar.
“U.S. patient needs can be met by a combination of the three foreign producers that avoid HEU targets, the fourth foreign producer that is converting to LEU targets, and a U.S. producer (NorthStar in Wisconsin) that is already producing without HEU targets,” they wrote. “In addition, several U.S. companies that avoid HEU targets are expected soon to start commercial production of Mo-99, facilitated by past NNSA cost-sharing, including under AMIPA.”
Molybdenum-99 decays into the isotope technetium-99m, which is employed in 40,000 medical diagnostic and therapeutic procedures each day in the United States, including for heart-disease diagnosis and cancer treatments.
The Energy Department’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration provides the HEU for foreign Mo-99 production. However, as part of its nuclear nonproliferation mission, it has also in recent years provided $138 million in cost-sharing funds to companies that seek to re-establish a strong domestic manufacturing capacity, the experts noted.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is reviewing an NNSA license application for export of nearly 4.8 kilograms of uranium enriched to 93.35% for isotope manufacturing by Belgium’s Institute for Radioelements.
