Molybdenum-99 for Medical Imaging (2016) / Chapter Skim
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5 Progress in Eliminating Highly Enriched Uranium and Remaining Obstacles
5 Progress in Eliminating Highly Enriched Uranium and Remaining Obstacles
Pages 135-158
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From page 135... ...
Most of the global supply of molybdenum-99 (Mo-99) for medical use is produced by irradiating targets containing highly enriched uranium (HEU)
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From page 136... ...
Commission may not issue a license for the export of highly enriched uranium from the United States for the purposes of medical isotope production.2 2 The export license cutoff date can be extended for up to 6 years if the Secretary of Energy certifies to Congress that "there is insufficient global supply of molybdenum-99 produced without the use of highly enriched uranium available to satisfy the domestic United States market; and .
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From page 137... ...
the development of fuels, targets, and processes for domestic molyb denum-99 production that do not use highly enriched uranium; and (2) commercial operations using the fuels, targets, and processes described in paragraph (1)
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From page 138... ...
is referred to as "UAlx." 10 That is, Mallinckrodt will be able to produce Mo-99 for commercial sale using LEU targets and its customers will have the necessary regulatory approvals to use this Mo-99 in technetium generators. Mallinckrodt does not expect to have a large remaining inventory of HEU targets after conversion is complete.
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From page 139... ...
Taken together, these design changes and changes in the irradiation protocol increased Mo-99 yields from LEU targets to about 80 percent of the yields from HEU targets. These companies plan to take additional steps to maintain their current Mo-99 production capacities (3,500 6-day Ci per week for Mallinckrodt and 3,600 6-day Ci per week for IRE; see Chapter 3)
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From page 140... ...
.13 Both of these institutes produce Mo-99 by irradiating HEU targets in HEU-fueled reactors. At present, the Russian Federation produces only enough Mo-99 for its own use and for limited export (see Chapter 3)
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Indeed, NTP has already qualified its LEU targets for use in the SAFARI-1 reactor and, as noted previously, is producing Mo-99 from these targets on a routine basis. IRE and Mallinckrodt have qualified their targets in all of the reactors they currently use to produce medical isotopes with HEU targets (see Chapter 3)
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From page 142... ...
5.4.1 IRE, Mallinckrodt, and NTP IRE, Mallinckrodt, and NTP use similar aqueous chemical processes (described in Chapter 2) to dissolve HEU targets and recover Mo-99: The targets are placed in a dissolver vessel and a strong base (sodium hydroxide [NaOH]
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From page 143... ...
The company plans to begin hot testing its process for producing Mo-99 from LEU targets in one set of hot cells while it produces Mo-99 for commercial sale from HEU targets in the other set. The company plans to begin producing Mo-99 for commercial sale with LEU targets in one set of hot cells, and it plans to convert its second set of hot cells to produce Mo-99 with LEU targets once all of its HEU targets are used up.
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From page 144... ...
Current global Mo-99 suppliers are developing additional capacity to manage these wastes as part of their conversion efforts. Production of Mo-99 from GA's selective gaseous extraction process will also produce solid and gaseous waste streams, but their compositions and volumes will likely be different than those produced by conventional aqueous processing of irradiated LEU plate targets.
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The four global Mo-99 suppliers that use HEU targets (IRE, Mallinckrodt, Nordion, NTP) will still possess large quantities of weaponsgrade waste19 even after they have converted to Mo-99 production using LEU targets.
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: $24.3M 5.6.1 IRE IRE has received financial support to address conversion-related research and development issues and LEU target qualification. 22 Rilla Hamilton, DOE-NNSA, written communication, June 8, 2016.
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5.7 ASSISTANCE FROM OTHER ORGANIZATIONS A number of other organizations are promoting the elimination of HEU from medical isotope production through a variety of means. Some of these efforts were discussed in previous chapters of this report.
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• The U.S. technetium generator supplier Lantheus Medical Imag ing is promoting the commercial sale of LEU-sourced technetium generators23 in North American markets.
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pledged24 to make "every effort to achieve further progress with regard to minimizing and eliminating the use of highly enriched uranium (HEU) in civilian applications." These efforts include LEU alternatives for medical isotope production: • here technically possible convert existing molybdenum-99 (Mo-99)
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From page 150... ...
However, utilization remains low compared to total Tc-99m radiopharmaceutical doses approved by Medicare Part B See discussion in text.
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a HCPCS 2016 Code Q9969: Tc-99m From Non-Highly Enriched Uranium Source, Full Cost Recovery Add-On, Per Study Dose. See https://www.hipaaspace.com/Medical_Billing/ Coding/Healthcare.Common.Procedure.Coding.System/Q9969.
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From page 152... ...
5.8 FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS FINDING 5A: The American Medical Isotopes Production Act of 2012 is accelerating the elimination of worldwide use of U.S.-origin highly enriched uranium in targets and medical isotope production facilities. There are no insurmountable obstacles to the elimination of highly enriched uranium from medical isotope production.
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From page 153... ...
IRE and Mallinckrodt plan to use the same types of LEU targets and aqueous chemical processes that are currently being used by ANSTO and NTP to produce greater than 1,000 6-day Ci per week of Mo-99 for commercial sale on a routine basis. Nevertheless, progress toward elimination of HEU from medical isotope production has been uneven: • ANSTO has always produced Mo-99 without HEU.
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From page 154... ...
Nordion will stop producing Mo-99 with HEU targets at the end of October 2016 (see Chapter 3) and plans to begin producing Mo-99 at MURR using LEU targets in the first half of 2018.
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In fact, the global demand for Mo-99 produced with LEU targets currently is lower than global supply capacity. Recommendation 5B is intended to promote the wider utilization of Mo-99/Tc-99m produced without the use of HEU targets and hasten the elimination of HEU from the global supply chain.
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RECOMMENDATION 5C: The U.S. government should continue to work with global molybdenum suppliers and their regulators to reduce the proliferation hazard from processing waste from medical isotope production containing U.S.-origin highly enriched uranium.
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From page 157... ...
and Russian scientific and technical organizations to facilitate conversion. To the committee's knowledge, the Russian Federation has not made a public commitment to eliminate HEU targets from Mo-99 production or announced a schedule for doing so.
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• The U.S. government could encourage engagements on medical isotope production between the U.S.
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