NIDC News

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Isotope Program has posted a new Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) for Research, Development and Training in Isotope Production (DE-FOA-0001896). This FOA can be found online at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science website, or at http://science.energy.gov/np/funding-opportunities/. Eligibility for the FOA is limited to domestic institutions of…

A MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR OF THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY ISOTOPE PROGRAM Hello everyone, I would like to announce that the Department of Energy (DOE) Program Manager for Isotope Facilities, Dr. Ethan Balkin, has expressed interest in assuming the responsibilities of Program Manager for Isotope R&D. This was the position vacated by Dr. Dennis Phillips when he retired last year. So please…

The US Department of Energy Isotope Program (DOE IP) recently provided more than 500 mg of highly enriched ruthenium-96 (Ru-96), most of which was newly produced at Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Enriched Stable Isotope Pilot Plant (ESIPP). This marks the first production of a newly enriched stable isotope by the DOE IP in nearly 20 years. In addition, this milestone successfully fulfills a…

An automated purification of zirconium-89 (89Zr) from a yttrium (Y) target has been developed by researchers at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), in collaboration with the University of Washington Department of Radiology, and is detailed in the February 2018 issue of Applied Radiation and Isotopes. A positron emitter with a relatively long half-life (78.4 h), 89Zr is a promising…

Actinium-225 (Ac-225, t1/2 = 10.0 days) is routinely available from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Isotope Program. Starting in February 2018, Ac-225 will be produced regularly via the proton bombardment of thorium-232 (Th-232) targets at our accelerator sites at Brookhaven (BNL) and Los Alamos National Laboratories (LANL). Ac-225 continues to be distributed as a thorium-229 (Th-229) decay…

The latest issue of our National Isotope Development Center (NIDC) Newsletter is now available! Read about the latest developments in the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) isotope production, university partnerships, facility improvements, staff news, and more. Highlights for this issue include:  New University Partnership with University of Missouri Fortifies Supply of High Specific…

The U.S. Department of Energy Isotope Program is pleased to announce the availability of lutetium-177 (Lu-177) for distribution through our partnership with the University of Missouri Research Reactor Center (MURR). Lu-177 is a radioisotope commonly used for research in cancer treatment and has a half-live of 6.65 days. The product, Lu-177 chloride solution (0.05M HCl), has a specific activity of…

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Isotope Program is pleased to announce the availability of heavy water (D2O) for research purposes. The general specifications of the material are given in the table below. Additional analytical results are available upon request. The heavy water is packaged in polypropylene-coated, stainless steel kegs, each with a capacity of 50 L and measuring…

The Department of Energy’s Isotope Program (DOE IP) has set aside two days, Tuesday, November 7 and Wednesday, November 8, 2017, for “one-on-one” meetings with interested commercial customers to discuss isotope supply and demand issues. The meetings will be held at the DOE offices in Germantown, Maryland, or at a nearby location. The meetings provide an opportunity for the isotope community to…

Unveiled at the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging Annual Meeting in June, a new six-minute video showcasing the U.S. Department of Energy Isotope Program gives viewers a behind-the-scenes look at the production of isotopes critical to everyday applications, particularly in the medical arena. For instance, researchers across our national laboratory network explain how continuously…