GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH) will explore the feasibility of producing molybdenum-99 (Mo-99) at a nuclear power plant operated by Exelon in Clinton, IL.
Exelon's Clinton Power Station currently produces the isotope cobalt-60 for use in other medical treatments. In the next year, GEH and Exelon plan to design a way to insert and remove activated Mo-99 on a weekly basis.
The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration provided $2.25 million in September 2009 as part of a cooperative agreement to fund the GEH project to produce Mo-99 in the U.S. without the use of highly enriched uranium.
GEH also has signed an agreement with NuView Life Sciences' facility in Denton, TX, and NorthStar Medical Radioisotopes' facility in the city of Beloit, WI, as potential Mo-99 processing sites.
Mo-99 decays into technetium-99m, the medical isotope used in approximately 85% of all nuclear medicine procedures, including imaging of the heart, kidneys, lungs, liver, spleen, bones, and blood flow.
