Each year, millions of patients benefit from diagnostic services made possible by advances in medical imaging. However, some of these services rely on the supply of 99mTc from an ageing nuclear infrastructure. Kevin Charlton discusses new technologies to secure a sustainable supply.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals
Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription
$29.99 / 30 days
cancel any time
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 digital issues and online access to articles
$99.00 per year
only $8.25 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
References
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The supply of medical radioisotopes: an economic study of the molybdenum-99 supply chain. OECD–NEA https://www.oecd-nea.org/med-radio/reports/MO-99.pdf (2010).
112th Congress. S.99 — American Medical Isotopes Production Act of 2011. govinfo https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/BILLS-112s99is/pdf/BILLS-112s99is.pdf (2011).
Committee on State of Molybdenum-99 Production and Utilization and Progress Toward Eliminating Use of Highly Enriched Uranium; Nuclear and Radiation Studies Board; Division on Earth and Life Studies; National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Molybdenum-99 for Medical Imaging (National Academies Press, 2016).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The author declares no competing interests.
Additional information
Related links
Celebrating the 60th anniversary of the 99m Tc generator: https://www.bnl.gov/newsroom/news.php?a=213162
NorthStar Solutions: RadioGenix System: https://www.northstarnm.com/products/northstar-solutions-radiogenix-system/
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Charlton, K. A sustainable future for nuclear imaging. Nat Rev Phys 1, 530–532 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42254-019-0098-3
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s42254-019-0098-3