Stakeholders have until March 10 to file a petition with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a hearing to raise concerns about SHINE Medical Technologies’ license application to operate a medical isotope production plant in Janesville, Wis.
The federal agency in October began its full technical review of the company’s July 2019 application, according to a Jan. 10 notice in the Federal Register. That includes the opportunity for potentially impacted parties to request to intervene in the proceeding.
The NRC in 2016 authorized SHINE to build its molybdenum-99 production facility. Construction began last spring. With federal approval, management hopes to reach commercial levels of output of the isotope by 2022.
The 43,000-square-foot plant will contain accelerator-based technology for production. Specifically, it will encompass two main components: an irradiation facility with eight operating assemblies for irradiation of low-enriched uranium; and a production facility with hot cells to process the irradiate material and then recover and purify molybdenum-99.
Petitioners must demonstrate standing for intervention and a hearing in the licensing, including citing details of their right to become a party to the proceeding and their “property, financial, or other interest in the proceeding,” according to the Federal Register notice. They must also outline specific contentions that would be raised against the project at a hearing.
“Each contention,” the NRC said, “must consist of a specific statement of the issue of law or fact to be raised or controverted.”
Molybdenum-99 decays into the isotope technetium-99m, which is used widely on a global scale for medical diagnostics and other procedures – including over 40,000 procedures daily in the United States alone. SHINE and other U.S. companies are working to restore a domestic production capacity after decades of reliance on foreign suppliers.
In its 2019 report, SHINE said it raised $150 million last year for its work.
