The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is preparing to release another tranche of funding for companies working to produce the medical isotope molybdenum-99 without use of weapon-grade uranium.
The semiautonomous branch of the Department of Energy said it received $35 million from Congress for this work in the current 2020 federal budget year. The agency posted the funding opportunity announcement on Thursday, nearly a year after it sealed the last of four separate $15 million agreements with domestic isotope producers.
“Not including this $35 million funding opportunity, NNSA has awarded a total of $160 million on cooperative agreements to domestic Mo-99 companies,” agency spokesman Craig Branson said by email Friday. The NNSA is seeking another $50 million for this mission in the upcomoing fiscal 2021.
In all cases, the recipients must provide matching funds.
Molybdenum-99 decays into the isotope technetium-99m, which is used widely in medical imaging around the world.
“Mo-99 is a vital medical isotope that helps us fight back against heart disease and cancer,” NNSA Administrator Lisa Gordon-Hagerty said in a press release. “This funding will accelerate efforts to make Mo-99 in America without the use of highly enriched uranium, ensuring that U.S. patients continue to have access to the critical medical care they need while reducing the potential for proliferation of nuclear materials.”
The agency is looking to support companies that are already developing their production capabilities, and can show they have the technical capacity and private financial support to manufacture commerce-level amounts of the isotope. The specific threshold will be capacity to generate no less than 1,500 six-day curies per week by the end of 2023, and to then boost that to 3,000 six-day curies per week.
Proposals must be submitted by 11:59 p.m. Eastern time on Sept. 30, the last day of fiscal 2020. They will “result in the award of one or more Cooperative Agreements” for commercial-scale production, according to the notice.
The solicitation is being managed by the NNSA’s Office of Material Management and Minimization, which aims to prevent misuse of nuclear weapon-usable highly enriched uranium and plutonium. The agency will then conduct “independent, merit-based reviews” of the applications, with offers for one or more cooperative agreements expected early in fiscal 2021, Branson said. That budget year begins on Oct. 1.
Starting in 1989, the United States for decades did not have any domestic source of molybdenum-99, which left it reliant on sometimes shaky supplies from foreign producers that employed highly enriched uranium. Even as other countries in recent years switched to low-enriched uranium for production, the NNSA has sought to assist in the revival of a U.S. industry.
Last summer, it finalized cooperative agreements with four companies: Northwest Medical Isotopes, of Corvallis, Ore.; Niowave, of Lansing, Mich.; NorthStar Medical Radioisotopes, of Beloit, Wis.; and SHINE Medical Technologies, of Janesville, Wis.
Of those, only NorthStar has begun production of molybdenum-99, using its neutron-capture system. The other companies are in different stages of development and securing regulatory approval for operations.
None of the companies responded to queries by deadline Friday regarding whether they would bid on the new funding.
They would not necessarily be alone in competing for the money. Other companies, including DOE contractor BWX Technologies, are also moving into the molybdenum-99 market. BWXT said Friday it “is reviewing this opportunity, but have no definitive plans to share at this time.”
A decade ago, the NNSA issued $100 million worth of cost-matching cooperative agreements for molybdenum-99 projects managed by NorthStar, SHINE, and General Atomics. NorthStar took $50 million through two agreements for separate production approaches, while the other companies each received $25 million commitments.
General Atomics later terminated its program following the withdrawal of a partner, Nordion. In 2018, BWXT acquired the Nordion medical isotopes business from Sotera Health.
