This document presents a range of policy options to facilitate further discussion on the conversion to low-enriched uranium targets by nuclear research reactors and processors for 99Mo production. Using low-enriched uranium targets is viewed as an important step towards reducing the risk of non-proliferation from uranium use for civilian purposes, despite projected higher costs and negative capacity impacts compared to using highly enriched uranium targets.
This document provides a basis for further discussion on the use of separate reimbursement to encourage the move to full-cost recovery. Separate reimbursement is one tool that could be used by public and private health insurance to support the move to ensuring sufficient reimbursement rates (or payments) for 99Mo/99mTc while the industry moves to full-cost recovery for irradiation services, paying for outage reserve capacity and transitioning to using low enriched uranium targets.
HomeLast reviewed: 9 October 2012