The Story that Keeps on Going

Updates on the Mo-99 supply

You may remember that early last month, rt image ran an article I wrote about the stability of the supply of molybdenum-99 (Mo-99), which is a precursor of technetium-99, the radioisotope used in about 80 percent of nuclear medicine procedures.

There are only about a half-dozen reactors worldwide that produce Mo-99 in quantities for commercial use. Because medical isotopes cannot be stockpiled, disruptions at one of those facilities quickly affect the chain of supply.

As of the time I was working on my article, all of the reactors producing Mo-99 were in normal operation cycles. But by the time my story appeared in print, the Chalk River reactor in Ontario, Canada, had been shut down as the result of a leak caused by a power outage. I have since seen some news stories indicating that estimates that Chalk River, which produces something like one-third of the world’s supply of medical isotopes, may be out of operation for three months are optimistic. I have read that the plant may be down for eight months or even a year.

There has been a virtual flurry of press releases in the weeks since.

Around the time Chalk River shut down, Lantheus Medical Imaging, in North Billerica, Mass., revealed that it had entered into an agreement earlier in the year with South Africa-based NTP Radioisotopes (Pty) Ltd. for the supply of Mo-99.

Lantheus has also announced that it has finalized an agreement with the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization for the supply of Mo-99 from low-enriched uranium (LEU). A panel at the National Academy of Sciences previously had released a report looking at using LEU to generate radioisotopes because of concerns that highly-enriched uranium can be diverted for the production of nuclear weapons.

Not to be outdone, MDS Nordion, based in Ottawa, has announced that it has an agreement with the Karpov Institute of Physical Chemistry in Moscow to study the feasibility of coming up with a supply of Mo-99 for the nuclear medicine market.

Meanwhile, in testimony before the Canadian House of Commons’ Standing Committee on Natural Resources, Steve West, the president of MDS Nordion, called for the reactivation of the MAPLE project. From the research I had done for my article, my understanding is that, in 1996, MDS Nordion entered into an agreement with Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. (AECL) for the design and construction of two reactors dedicated to commercial isotope production. However, the Canadian government and AECL canceled MAPLE in 2008, after years of delay, whereupon MDS filed a court claim against them.

As you can see, there is plenty going on when it comes to trying to figure out what to do about the Mo-99 supply. Interestingly, none of the recent developments I have mentioned indicate anything is happening to establish a U.S. domestic source for Mo-99. Do you think that’s a problem? E-mail me at mmarotta@rt-image.com to share your thoughts.