Eden Radioisotopes has signed an investment agreement with oil and gas company Abo Empire to build a medical isotope production reactor in New Mexico. The planned reactor of less than 2 megawatts of power will primarily manufacture molybdenum-99 (Mo-99), the precursor to technetium-99m (Tc-99m).
The Albuquerque, NM-based startup said it has also secured an exclusive license for a patented reactor technology from Sandia National Laboratories that will enable the production of Mo-99 in large quantities. If necessary, Eden's reactor will be able to process the entire reactive core of Mo-99 targets to generate more than 10,000 curies per week of Mo-99, according to Dick Coats, PhD, Eden's chief technology officer and developer of the Mo-99 reactor technology at Sandia.
