Molybdenum-99 Program

In 2012, Congress passed the American Medical Isotopes Production Act (AMIPA), which directed the Department of Energy to establish a technology-neutral program to support the establishment of domestic supplies of molybdenum-99 (Mo-99) without the use of highly enriched uranium (HEU). The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (DOE/NNSA) has implemented this by competitively awarding 50%/50% cost-shared cooperative agreements to commercial entities and providing funds to the DOE National Laboratories to support development of non-HEU Mo-99 production technologies. Mo-99 is a critical radioisotope whose decay byproduct technetium-99m (Tc-99m), is used in over 40,000 nuclear medicine diagnostic procedures performed daily in the United States. Its primary uses include diagnosing heart disease and cancer, as well as studying organ structure and function. The isotope’s short half-life and excellent binding properties make it uniquely suited for medical procedures. However, due to its short half-life it must be produced continuously to meet the medical community’s requirements. The United States does not currently have a domestic production capability for Mo-99 sufficient to meet the needs of the U.S. healthcare community, currently estimated at 4,500 6-day curies per week. The establishment of reliable, commercial, non-HEU-based Mo-99 production in the United States complements the long-standing U.S. policy to minimize and eliminate the use of proliferation-sensitive HEU in civilian applications in order to prevent the potential theft of this material for malevolent use. The United States is at the nexus of two related priorities: the need to ensure a reliable, robust Mo-99 supply for U.S. patient care, and discouraging the use of proliferation-sensitive HEU in civilian applications. NNSA will issue Cooperative Agreements with the purpose of providing additional federal funding to accelerate commercial Mo-99 projects’ time to market so that industry and government can fulfill these two critical priorities and decrease the U.S. medical community’s reliance on foreign supplies of Mo-99.

Only U.S. commercial entities with mature technologies to achieve commercial-scale production of Mo-99 in a facility or using facilities located in the United States in accordance with the goals of this FOA may submit applications. National Laboratories, M&O Contractors, Institutions of Higher Education, and Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDC) are not eligible to apply for an award under this FOA, but can be included in teaming arrangements.

The general public.

2 CFR 200, Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards applies to this program. No additional FOAs are currently open or planned to be issued under this Assistance Listing. The previous FOA was posted on Grants.gov (opens in new window) and applicants were required to submit applications through that website to be considered for award. All applications that were received by the application due date and time, as specified in the FOA, were subjected to an initial Compliance Review, and upon satisfactorily passing the initial review were subjected to a comprehensive evaluation.

The Merit Review Panel Chairperson was responsible for reviewing the independent findings and ratings of each evaluator, and ultimately completing a Merit Review Panel Chairperson’s Report to summarize the findings and make recommendations for awards to the Selection Official. The Selection Official considered the merit review recommendation, program policy factors, budget evaluations of the Project Management Plan, and the amount of funds available, when making a decision for awards. The program policy factors and budget evaluations were not point scored, but the Selection Official could consider them in making the selections for negotiation of award. The Selection Official made a decision to select for award a group of projects which represented a diversity of technical approaches, methods, applications and/or market segments, which included four awards. Upon the Selection Official making the final decisions, the Contracting Officer notified selectees and non-selectees.

30 Days – Selection Process
135 Days – Prepare for Award/Negotiate/Award 1 – 4 Cooperative Agreements