The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is carrying through with a pledge made earlier this year to provide $40 million more to support development of commercial production of the medical isotope molybdenum-99.
The semiautonomous Department of Energy agency aims to promote means of production that do not require highly enriched uranium, a proliferation-sensitive material that can be used in nuclear weapons.
On July 25, the NNSA issued a funding opportunity announcement for submission of applications that would lead to cooperative agreements to demonstrate and establish commercial-scale manufacturing of the isotope. The agency would provide four agreements, each worth $10 million, an NNSA spokesman said Tuesday.
Applications are due 60 days from the date of the announcement. The NNSA expects to award the agreements early next year.
“The applications will be evaluated based on the ability of the recipient to produce Mo-99 in the United States and establish the capability to deliver to the U.S. market at least 3,000 6-day curies of Mo-99 per week, steady state, without the use of HEU,” according to the funding announcement. “Any commercial entity which already has the capability to currently produce at least 3,000 6-day curies of Mo-99 per week, steady state, without the use of HEU, will be eliminated from consideration.”
The $40 million would come on top of $100 million the agency has already designated for the same purpose. In each case, that involved an agreement for $25 million, to be matched by the recipients: NorthStar Medical Radioisotopes, which secured two awards worth $50 million; SHINE Medical Technologies; and General Atomics, which has since abandoned the medical isotopes program.
The United States currently has no domestic production capacity for molybdenum-99, which decays into the isotope technetium-99m. That isotope is used around the world for medical processes including cardiac stress tests and diagnosis of heart disease and cancers.
