The Suit Magazine

If the National Research Universal Reactor at AECL, Ltd., located in Chalk River, Ontario, closes permanently in 2015 as it is currently scheduled to do, it will exacerbate an already severe shortage of a radioisotope critical to medical imaging known as Molybdenum-99 (Mo-99).

Medical imaging technologies, including brain scans, rely on a natural decay product of Mo-99, which the United States imports from nuclear reactors abroad; none of it is produced domestically. The National Research Universal Reactor currently generates almost half the world’s supply of Mo-99.

The science is complex, but the consequences are plain: without a new source for Mo-99, medical institutions across the United States may be unable to provide nuclear medicine diagnostic imaging services for hospital patients.

But researchers are on the verge of finding a solution. At Advanced Medical Isotope Corporation in Kennewick, Wash., CEO James Katzaroff and his team are close to debuting a new accelerator technology—one that can create MO-99 without a nuclear reactor.

According to Katzaroff, domestic production is long overdue. “It is unfortunate that the U.S. federal government has not prepared a reliable domestic resource, instead relying on imports from countries such as South Africa, Belgium, Poland and The Netherlands,” he said in an interview with The Suit Magazine. Our supply of Mo-99 and other radioisotopes—which comes primarily from Canada, but also from reactors in Europe, Africa, Australia and South America—is already beginning to run dry, and patients are suffering the consequences.

“Many patients have not been able to receive the diagnostic imaging scans that they need to correctly diagnose cancer and other diseases,” Katzaroff said.

Katzaroff founded AMIC in 2006. Today, he and his 14 employees bring a combined 300 years of experience to the table, and their location in Kennewick is home to one of the largest concentrations of nuclear engineers and scientists in the United States. Drawing on that base of knowledge, Katzaroff is confident that the solution is close at hand.

“We’ve got a new technology that’s patented; it came out of the University of Missouri and we’ve added to it. We believe it’s going to be the next generation of Mo-99 production—and on U.S. soil. It’s using compact systems, without a nuclear reactor. And it’s a fraction of the cost to build.”

After years of research and development, the project is nearing completion. “We’re close. We have one more confirmation that we’re working with Pacific Northwest National Labs on, and when that confirmation is done we’ll be applying for our licenses and ready to roll,” Katzaroff explained. “I’m talking this year.”

In an encouraging development, the U.S. Senate passed a bill in February that could support the efforts of AMIC. The American Medical Isotopes Production Act of 2011, headed by Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Ark., and Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., will allocate funding and resources to support domestic production of Mo-99. The bill is awaiting consideration by the House of Representatives.

Whether the bill passes or not, the team at AMIC will continue to promote their groundbreaking technology, which has the potential to cut down on health care costs nationwide and provide necessary medical imaging services promptly and efficiently.

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