The US Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) issued a cooperative agreement worth $35m to a Wisconsin company to support the commercial production of molybdenum-99 (Mo-99), a critical isotope used in more than 40,000 medical procedures in the US each day, including the diagnosis of heart disease and cancer.

The agreement with Shine Technologies, headquartered in Janesville, Wisconsin, will help establish a reliable supply of Mo-99 without the need to use highly enriched uranium (HEU), which presents concerns for nuclear nonproliferation goals.

“This cooperative agreement is a triple win for the United States,” said Jill Hruby, DOE under-secretary for nuclear security and NNSA administrator. “NNSA’s continued partnership with Shine will help ensure that doctors and patients get the medical isotopes they need, that those isotopes are produced without the use of proliferation-sensitive HEU, and that the work gets done here in the United States.”