| January 14, 2009 |  |
US Needs Med Isotope Production Capability
National Academy of Sciences to release radioisotope production report today
The United States could soon face a critical shortage of essential radioisotopes used in medicine unless it quickly develops a safe, secure domestic capability to produce them, the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) warned today. UCS called on the incoming Obama administration and Congress to act as soon as possible, especially given today's release of a long-awaited National Academy of Sciences report on the feasibility of producing these isotopes without using highly enriched uranium (HEU), which also can be used in nuclear bombs.
"Constructing domestic medical isotope production facilities would create jobs, relieve our dependence on foreign sources, and reduce the threat of nuclear terrorism at the same time," said Dr. Edwin Lyman, a senior staff scientist with the UCS Global Security Program. "This project would be a worthwhile component of any stimulus package."
The United States currently depends on a handful of foreign nuclear reactors for its supply of the isotope molybdenum-99, which decays to technetium-99m, which is used for more than 12 million medical procedures annually across the country. However, these reactors are many decades old and are deteriorating. A series of unplanned safety-related shutdowns have led to isotope supply interruptions around the world. For example, the 50-year-old NRU reactor in Canada, which the United States ordinarily relies on for more than 60 percent of its molybdenum-99 supply, has had to increase production to compensate for the prolonged emergency maintenance shutdown of the Petten reactor in the Netherlands, which is not scheduled to restart until early spring. But the NRU, which experienced the latest of numerous recent unplanned outages only last month, is itself unreliable, Lyman said. The United States cannot depend on this facility to provide the isotopes it needs in the long-term.
Besides reliability questions, Lyman pointed out another critical reason why the United States should develop its own isotope production facilities. The largest foreign suppliers currently use HEU and are reluctant to convert their production processes so that they can use low-enriched uranium (LEU), which cannot be used in nuclear weapons. Their recalcitrance is one of the greatest obstacles today to the goal of eliminating the commercial use of bomb-usable HEU worldwide, the UCS physicist said.
"The commercial use of highly enriched uranium poses a grave risk because the material could be used to make crude nuclear bombs if stolen by terrorists," he said. "The United States, drawing on the research and development work at Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois, is well-positioned to build state-of-the-art isotope production facilities that rely on low-enriched uranium only. This would enable the U.S. to phase out HEU shipments to Canada for use in isotope production. The U.S. also could become an isotope supplier for other countries that don't want to buy them from producers that use highly enriched uranium."
In an article published last month in the on-line edition of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Lyman argued that the U.S government should fund development of domestic isotope production facilities. The fastest way to do that would be to utilize the research reactor at the University of Missouri at Columbia and spend some $40 million to build an auxiliary facility to extract the desired radioisotopes from irradiated LEU targets. In the longer term, Dr. Lyman wrote, the federal government should build a new, dedicated facility in a remote area with state-of-the-art safety and security features.
The National Academy of Sciences report issued today, "Medical Isotope Production without Highly Enriched Uranium," was requested by Congress in the 2005 Energy Policy Act to evaluate the feasibility of obtaining isotopes from commercial sources that do not use HEU. If the report determines that such procurement is not feasible today, it will outline the steps necessary to improve feasibility.
"It's technologically feasible today to produce medical isotopes with low-enriched uranium," said Lyman. "The U.S. needs to take the initiative to bring that technology to market."
The Union of Concerned Scientists puts rigorous, independent science to work to solve our planet's most pressing problems. Joining with citizens across the country, we combine technical analysis and effective advocacy to create innovative, practical solutions for a healthy, safe, and sustainable future.
