SMART Takes Critical Step towards the Production of Medical Isotope Mo-99 without uranium

Since 2018, the National Institute for Radioelements (IRE) has been working with the Dutch company ASML on the project entitled SMART (“Source of MedicAl RadioisoTopes”)  with a goal to develop a new technology to produce Molybdenum-99 (Mo-99), a radioisotope that is crucial to nuclear medicine, without using  Uranium-235, but using non-radioactive Molybdenum-100.

One of IRE’s flagship products, Molybdenum-99 (or Mo-99) is fundamental to avail Technetium-99m used for imaging in nuclear medicine. Following a purification process, the IRE extracts Mo-99 and sends it to pharmaceutical companies to manufacture generators of Technetium-99m (or Tc-99m), the radioisotope used today in 80% of diagnostics in nuclear medicine for many examinations (such as for scintigraphy which explores disorders of the bones, heart, lungs, kidneys, liver, thyroid, brain, gastrointestinal system, etc.).

The current method of production of Molybdenum-99, harvested from nuclear fission products however faces a major difficulty as it is based on Uranium-235. Including, ageing reactors, the management of irradiated waste, the geopolitical context, transportation and the handling of materials from abroad, the challenges related to uranium are many and growing. Hence the creation of the project SMART.

To read more please visit:

https://www.ire.eu/medias/545/220211-IRE-PressRelease-SMART-EN-vf.pdf

Source: IRE

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