By John Stang
Eden Radioisotopes plans simultaneous submission of construction and operations license applications to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for its planned molybdenum-99 (Mo-99) production facility in New Mexico.
The Albuquerque, N.M.-based startup discussed its plans during an Oct. 8 pre-application meeting with the NRC at the agency’s headquarters in Rockville, Md.
The facility would be built on a 240-acre site in the city of Eunice, in southeastern New Mexico, near the border with Texas. It would encompass a 2-megawatt reactor to irradiate Mo-99 targets, along with a processing facility to extract the isotope and administrative space. The company selected Eunice after scouting other locations in the nearby city of Hobbs.
The construction and operation licenses are being sought in one effort, with Eden believing the NRC can work on operational issues while construction is underway, co-founder and Chief Operating Officer Chris Wagner said in an Oct. 10 interview.
“What we have learned in our pre-submission meetings with the NRC is they do not necessarily see these submissions as a two-step process; meaning one submission for the Construction Permit and then the second for the Operating Permit,” Wagner said Thursday in a follow-up email message. “From previous non-Eden license submissions, they have learned there is information cross-over between the construction permit and operating license details. In essence, providing everything in one full submission provides the NRC with the complete picture from beginning to end.”
At a certain point, Wagner said, the industry regulator should have sufficient confidence to sign off on the construction license even as it continues to review the operations application. “Then as construction progresses, NRC will provide continuous monitoring/inspection, while matching the operating permit application details with the physical construction.”
Eden expects to file its applications in the first or second quarter of 2020, Wagner said. There was no word before deadline Friday on the potential schedule for the NRC review of the license applications.
Construction is expected to begin within two years, Wagner said, with production due to start in 2023 or 2024. Eden aims to ultimately provide 20 percent to 25 percent of the world’s supply of Mo-99, with an eventual target of producing 10,000 6-day curies per week. Molybdenum-99 decays into the isotope technetium-99m, which is used in 80 percent of all nuclear medicine procedures.
Eden will employ an upgraded version of a reactor converted in the late 1990s at the Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque for Mo-99 production. The U.S. government canceled that project to avoid competing with a reactor facility being built by Canadian health science company Nordion. The Canadian MAPLE project, however, was itself terminated 11 years ago.
Three of Eden’s five co-founders were involved in the Sandia project. The company was formed in 2013 by present CEO Bennett Lee, who came across the production system while reviewing Sandia intellectual property while working at the lab.
The company has not released the projected cost of its facility, but Wagner’s Linkedin profile cites the company as a $75 million startup. The funder is Abo Empire, a New Mexican family owned oil and gas company wanting to diversify its investments.
