ARLINGTON, Va. — The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) could soon award a new tranche of funding to support U.S. commercial manufacturing of the medical isotope molybdenum-99, a senior official said this week.
“We’re working through the competitive procurement process and I hope that we can make an announcement on that soon,” William “Ike” White, chief of staff at the NNSA, said during a presentation Tuesday at the ExchangeMonitor’s Nuclear Deterrence Summit. He did not elaborate.
In May 2018, the semiautonomous Department of Energy agency announced plans for $40 million in cost-sharing cooperative agreements, likely providing $10 million each to four programs. However, it said more money could be divided between a smaller number of programs if four suitable proposals were not submitted.
The NNSA issued the funding opportunity last July. “Selections will be based upon the technical evaluations and recommendations of the independent Merit Review Panel,” the agency said in a statement Wednesday. It did not say when the agreements would be finalized.
Congress appropriated $40 million for the NNSA molybdenum-99 program in fiscal 2018 and another $20 million in the current fiscal 2019.
Last year, several companies working to re-establish a domestic production capacity for molybdenum-99 – NorthStar Medical Radioisotopes, SHINE Medical Technologies, and Northwest Medical Isotopes – said they were at least considering applying for the funding agreements. Another, Coqui RadioPharmaceuticals, said it would apply.
Molybdenum-99 decays into the isotope technetium-99m, which is employed around the globe in medical procedures including diagnosing cancer and heart disease. The United States last had its own domestic production capacity in 1989, and since then has been at the mercy of foreign supplies.
The NNSA previously committed $100 million to four Mo-99 projects managed by three companies: SHINE, NorthStar, and General Atomics. Each project received $25 million, to be matched by the company. General Atomics terminated its program in 2018 after one of its partners, Nordion, withdrew. Nordion’s parent company subsequently sold its medical isotopes business to BWX Technologies.
