The U.S. will cease exporting highly enriched uranium to overseas producers of the medical isotope molybdenum-99 in January, the federal government announced Monday.
In the release, U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm and U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra said they jointly certified that there is enough molybdenum-99 (Mo-99) in the world made without highly enriched uranium to meet the needs of U.S. patients. The official certification was due to be published Monday, Dec. 27.
“Doctors and patients across the globe can be confident that the critical medical isotope Mo-99 will be there when they need it, and we can provide that assurance without making any further exports of highly enriched uranium,” Granholm said in the release.
The Department of Energy had until Jan. 2 to either certify that Mo-99 supplies from low-enriched uranium are sufficient, or again extend the window for exports. Then-Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette extended exports for about two years in January 2020, the first and only time an energy secretary has done so. DOE could have decided to let highly enriched uranium exports for Mo-99 continue until 2026.
DOE, through its semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration, has been trying to jumpstart a domestic Mo-99 industry to replace the international trade that has historically provided the bulk of the U.S. supply.. Belgium’s Institute for Radioelements in Fleurus, Belgium, was among the the beneficiaries of that trade, producing Mo-99 from U.S. uranium.
Molybdenum 99 decays into Technetium 99, a gamma emitting isotope widely used for medical imaging that can aid with diagnoses of different illnesses.
NorthStar Medical technologies, Beloit, Wis., is the leading U.S. upstart among multiple, would-be Mo-99 providers that have received economic assistance from the NNSA.
