Short- and long-term responses to molybdenum-99 shortages in nuclear medicine.
Most nuclear medicine studies use (99)Tc(m), which is the decay product of (99)Mo. The world supply of (99)Mo comes from only five nuclear research reactors and availability has been much reduced in recent times owing to problems at the largest reactors. In the short-term there are limited actions that can be taken owing to capacity issues on alternative imaging modalities. In the long-term, stability of (99)Mo supply will rely on a combination of replacing conventional reactors and developing new technologies.
Department of Nuclear Medicine, Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, and Division of Imaging Sciences and Biomedical Engineering, King's College London. jim.ballinger@kcl.ac.uk
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Ballinger
D006207:Half-Life; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006801:Humans; D008119:Lobbying; D008982:Molybdenum / Q000600:supply & distribution*; D009683:Nuclear Medicine / Q000639:trends*; D009688:Nuclear Reactors / Q000600:supply & distribution; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography; D011851:Radioactivity; D011868:Radioisotopes / Q000600:supply & distribution*; D011876:Radionuclide Generators / Q000600:supply & distribution
D011868:Radioisotopes; D008982:Molybdenum