MORE MEDICAL ISOTOPE GRANTS COMING AFTER NNSA REPROGRAMMING REQUEST

摘要

The National Nuclear Security Administration is planning to award two more grants to private industry aimed at jump-starting domestic medical isotope production by September, and recently asked permission of Congress to reprogram $10 million to support the effort. The NNSA already awarded $11.25 million to Babcock & Wilcox's Technical Services Group and GE-Hitachi earlier this year to address the worldwide medical isotope production crisis, and two more awards would further address the Obama Administration's goal of developing substantial domestic production capacity by 2013. The reprogramming request, which was sent to Congress June 10 and is close to being approved by the House and Senate Energy and Water Appropriations subcommittees, would shift $10 million that had been set aside for a full inventory of Department of Energy and NNSA nuclear material to determine whether there are materials that have other uses toward the effort.