Last year saw a major worldwide crisis in the availability of medical radioisotopes. More specifically in the production of Mo-99/Tc-99m generators for diagnostic nuclear medicine. Tc-99m is used in about 80% of all diagnostic nuclear imaging procedures, corresponding to about 30 million examinations yearly worldwide among which several million in Europe alone.
The paper shortly analyses the causes of the shortage and points to necessary long-term measures to avoid future crisis. It concludes that for many years to come, the European isotope production will remain fragile, as it is concentrated in only a few facilities, with the associated risk of shortage in case of facility failure. The fragility also comes from economics, since the isotope production is publicly subsidized by the limited number of countries hosting the facilities.
This situation calls for a political action, not only to secure the isotope supply, to pool the risks and loads linked to operation, maintenance, radwaste treatment and decommissioning, but also to organize the isotope distribution on a sound and equal economical basis.
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