It is technically and financially feasible to use low-enriched uranium to produce medical isotopes on a commercial scale. That is the conclusion of a National Research Council (NRC) report released in January.
Congress commissioned the report to explore the conflicting goals of restricting exports of highly enriched uranium (HEU) for medical isotope production, per the Energy Policy Act of 1992, and ensuring a reliable supply of isotopes, to which end a later law lifted the export restrictions (see Physics Today, May 2008, page 22). “The question we pursued was the feasibility of achieving both,” the chair and vice chair of the study write in the report.
The most common radioisotope used in medicine is technetium-99m, a decay product of molybdenum-99, which is obtained from uranium fission. The NRC report finds that facilities can convert from HEU, which poses a proliferation risk, to LEU to produce 99 Mo with...
