Solving the medical isotope crisis : hearing before the Subcommittee on Energy and Environment of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, House of Representatives, One Hundred Eleventh Congress, first session, September 9, 2009.

The ongoing medical isotope supply crisis is affecting more than Canadians' health. It not only puts at risk our aspirations to nurture a leading-edge innovative industry, it severely limits our options to help reduce the burden on future health care budgets. What got us into this mess is a tale of high minded optimism, missed opportunities and bureaucratic bungling. The more important question, however, is: how can we re-establish Canada's prominence, and secure at reasonable cost the potential benefits that medical isotopes will deliver for our future health'. Addressed in this collection are provocative essays from some of the world's top experts in nuclear physics and nuclear medicine.

This book is the product of a congressionally mandated study to examine the feasibility of eliminating the use of highly enriched uranium (HEU2) in reactor fuel, reactor targets, and medical isotope production facilities. The book focuses primarily on the use of HEU for the production of the medical isotope molybdenum-99 (Mo-99), whose decay product, technetium-99m3 (Tc-99m), is used in the majority of medical diagnostic imaging procedures in the United States, and secondarily on the use of HEU for research and test reactor fuel. The supply of Mo-99 in the U.S. is likely to be unreliable until newer production sources come online. The reliability of the current supply system is an important medical isotope concern; this book concludes that achieving a cost difference of less than 10 percent in facilities that will need to convert from HEU- to LEU-based Mo-99 production is much less important than is reliability of supply.

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