The US Department of Energy will Fund Molybdenum-99 Production Projects

According to the International Nuclear Engineering magazine on January 5, 2017 reported that the US Department of Energy National Nuclear Military Administration (NNSA) has signed a follow-up cooperation agreement with three projects to establish a reliable domestic molybdenum-99 source, the technology Will produce molybdenum-99 without the use of high enriched uranium.

The agreement was signed with Shine Medical Technologies, Polaris Medical Radioisotope and General Atomics. NNSA said Shine plans not to use nuclear reactors, and subcritical accelerator technology to produce molybdenum-99 with low enriched uranium (LEU); Polaris is developing a method of using linear accelerators; General Atomics is developing a low enriched uranium Target fission technology.

NNSA's support for three projects is based on 50% of the government's cost, 50% of the cost of business sharing, until the NNSA for each project invested 25 million US dollars. At present, the United States does not produce molybdenum-99, but imported from foreign producers, some of which produce high-enriched uranium in the production process.