NNSA provided $8.86 million to support NorthStar’s neutron capture production process and $2.89 million for the company’s accelerator production process. The awards were made as part of separate cooperative agreements between NorthStar and NNSA. As is the case with all DOE/NNSA cooperative agreements for domestic Mo-99 partners, NNSA is matching NorthStar funding dollar for dollar, and each agreement is capped at $50 million in total funds from both parties.
Mo-99 is the parent isotope of technetium-99m (Tc-99m), the most widely used radioisotope in medical diagnostic imaging. Currently, nearly all Mo-99 is generated using weapons-useable HEU at aging facilities located outside of the United States, leading to chronic product shortages in the past as well as creating safety and national security concerns.
The neutron capture production process award will be used to further scale up Mo-99 production capacity to 3,000 6-day curies by the fourth quarter of 2016. The award is the balance of support outlined in the neutron capture cooperative agreement, making NorthStar the first company participating in the NNSA Mo-99 cooperative agreement program to become fully funded at $25 million in NorthStar funding and $25 million in matching NNSA awards.
The accelerator production process cooperative agreement award will be used to continue developing the technology. The cooperative agreement currently has a value of $11.4 million – $5.7 million coming from NorthStar and $5.7 in matching awards from NNSA.
The cooperative agreements are provided through the Office of Material Management and Minimization, which was established by the NNSA to achieve permanent threat reduction by minimizing and, when possible, eliminating weapons-usable nuclear material around the world. One of its goals is to support the development of a supply of Mo-99 that is produced domestically without the use of HEU.
“These awards are clear indications of the progress that NorthStar is making toward bringing a viable domestic supply of Mo-99 to the United States – something we have not had since 1990,” said NorthStar President and Chief Executive Officer George P. Messina. “They are significant milestones toward ensuring that medical professionals here have reliable access to this vital isotope, enabling them to make accurate diagnoses and conduct important research, while also addressing important safety and national security concerns.
“We appreciate the continued support we have received from NNSA, including its financial assistance through the cooperative agreement program and its technical support via the national laboratories,” he said.
Both of the technologies that NorthStar is developing produce Mo-99 from stable isotopes of molybdenum without the use of HEU. Both produce only a benign waste stream.
The neutron capture production process is used by the University of Missouri Research Reactor in Columbia, Mo, to supply Mo-99 through its Master Drug File. The Mo-98 is irradiated in the reactor, capturing an additional neutron in its nucleus to become Mo?99.
The accelerator process starts with Mo-100 and uses a linear accelerator, rather than a nuclear reactor. The Mo-100 interacts with a high-velocity electron, creating X-rays. The photons then interact with other Mo-100 nuclei, causing a neutron to be ejected from the Mo-100 nucleus to create Mo-99.
In both production processes, the Mo-99 is dissolved into a solution, which is packaged and delivered to radiopharmacies nationwide. There, NorthStar’s intelligent isotope separation system, the RadioGenix, is used to extract Tc-99m for use in nuclear medicine procedures.
For more information, visit NorthStar Medical Radioisotopes.
