Forbes October 24, 2024
Technetium-99m, a critical nuclear imaging radioisotope, is in short supply and could cause delays or cancellations of over 40,000 medical imaging studies daily in the United States.
The global shortage of Tc-99m stems for issues related to its production. Normally, Tc-99m decays and is eluted from Molybdenum-99, which is generated from a high-flux reactor. The parent isotope Molybdenum-99 is only produced in a few nuclear reactors worldwide, such as in Petten, Netherlands. A structural issue within a pipe from this reactor in the Netherlands will require repair that may delay the production of Tc-99m well into November, according to reports from the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging.
Tc-99m is the most widely used radioisotope in nuclear medicine, accounting...
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