Feedback from the High-Level Group Meeting on the Security of Supply of Medical Radioisotopes (HLG-MR) The 4th Meeting (3rd Mandate) of the High-Level Group on the Security of Supply of Medical Radioisotopes (HLG-MR) was held on 7-9 July 2015 at the OECD Conference Centre in Paris, France.

​The 4th Meeting (3rd Mandate) of the High-Level Group on the Security of Supply of Medical Radioisotopes (HLG-MR) was held on 7-9 July 2015 at the OECD Conference Centre in Paris, France.

An important outcome of the meeting is the publication of the report "The Supply of Medical Radioisotopes – 2015 Medical Isotope Supply Review: Mo-99/Tc-99m Market Demand and Production Capacity Projection 2015-2020" (https://www.oecd-nea.org/med-radio/supply-series.html) in which the global Mo-99 market demand has been adjusted to 9.000 six-day Ci per week at a reference time point of end 2014 and the market growth rates have been kept unchanged at 0,5% for mature markets (84% of the global demand) and 5% for emerging markets (16% of the global demand) during the forecast period.

The Chairman of the AIPES Reactors and Isotopes Working Group (AIPES R&I WG) made a presentation about the short-term Mo-99 supply status, where he underlined that the AIPES R&I WG continues to make serious and continuous efforts to achieve the best possible coordination of the reactor operating periods. He advised that there had been no disruption to supply during the period January 2015 – June 2015 and only once was it needed to call the 'Emergency Response Team' (ERT) teleconference.

This was achieved despite an extended scheduled maintenance of the IRE processing facility in January 2015 and the modification of the OSIRIS reactor operating period in March 2015. He also reported that the 16-months extended scheduled shutdown of the BR2 reactor for refurbishment (replacement of the beryllium matrix mainly) had started in February 2015 and that work was progressing well, thereby allowing the first operating cycle to be scheduled in July 2016 as initially foreseen. He added that the risk during the period April 2015 – May 2015 when the NRU reactor was shutdown for a 1-month scheduled maintenance had also been successfully negotiated.

The AIPES R&I WG has continued to work on developing the "VERSAILLES Mo-99 MODEL", an analysis tool to assess the risk of challenges to the planned reactors operating schedules. This model has been further validated by looking back at the 2013 and 2014 data and is now being used to follow the global Mo-99 maximum reactor production capacity on a week by week basis. It is viewed as being a suitable tool to assist scheduling and to identify potential periods at risk which would require further investigation at the various levels in the global supply chain (Mo-99 processor and Mo-99/Tc-99m generator manufacturer).

Short-term issues will affect the global Mo-99 supply chain with the definitive shutdown of the OSIRIS reactor at the end of December 2015, the extended refurbishment period of the BR2 reactor (February 2015 – July 2016), the end of routine Mo-99 production by the NRU reactor from beginning of November 2016, the conversion from HEU to LEU targets for Mo-99 production, etc… However, the irradiator and processor capacity of the current global Mo-99 supply chain should be sufficient to manage an unplanned outage of a reactor or a processor in the period 2015-2016. From 2017, the capacity to manage this kind of event will decrease and the need for additional processing capacity becomes very clear.