The American Society of Radiologic Technologists (ASRT) has joined supporters of Senate Bill 99, the American Medical Isotopes Production Act of 2011.
The bill is designed to ensure U.S. production of the radioisotope molybdenum-99 (Mo-99), which creates technetium-99m for more than 16 million nuclear medicine procedures in the U.S. each year.
The bill also calls for the U.S. to gradually eliminate the export of highly enriched uranium for the production of medical isotopes, over a period of seven years.
Introduced by Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) on January 25, the bill has been referred to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which began hearings on February 1.
