The campaign to resume domestic production of molybdenum-99

摘要

For many years, technetium-99m has been the most widely used radioiso-tope in nuclear medicine procedures. As the most populous developed country in the world, the United States uses nuclear medicine to a greater extent than any other country. (As of 2009, half of the nuclear medicine procedures in the world were performed here.) For many years, however, the United States has depended on facilities in other countries to provide Tc-99m, and a combination of the dwindling reliability of these suppliers and the short duration of the isotope's usefulness has forced health care providers to wait for availability, seek other sources, or put some patients' procedures on long-term deferral. With the federal government pursuing a dual mission to restore production capability and decouple it from the use of high-enriched uranium (HEU), several organizations have begun initiatives to create new production facilities for the precursor to Tc-99m, molybdenum-99. As part of that effort, they have also explored new ways to produce the material and to control the environmental impact of its production.