Risks of using Highly Enriched Uranium to produce medical isotopes

Radioisotopes are used in approximately 80-85 percent of the world's diagnostic imaging procedures, including 12 million procedures in the United States alone. Currently production of these isotopes involves use of highly-enriched uranium (HEU). Less than 5 percent of the HEU used in this process is consumed; the rest is stockpiled as waste in Canada, Europe, and South Africa, where companies use about 85 kilograms of HEU per year to make radioisotopes. While the isotope producers provide security for HEU transport and storage, it is unclear whether the security is stringent enough to eliminate the risk of theft. If a sophisticated individuals or group acquired about 50 kilograms of this waste, it could be used to build a simple Hiroshima-type nuclear bomb. Conversely, low-enriched uranium (LEU) contains less than 20 percent uranium 235 and cannot be used to make a nuclear bomb. But it still can be used to make radioisotopes. Conversion of use of HEU in production of radioisotopes to use of low-enriched uranium (LEU), which is not directly usable for weapons, is technically feasible and readily achievable. Converting facilities to use LEU is relatively inexpensive. The security cost savings alone would help defray the cost. This should prompt a global effort to replace HEU with LEU in medical isotope production. Health professionals have an opportunity and an ethical obligation to close one of the most vulnerable pathways to production of a nuclear bomb by ending the use of HEU in the production of radioisotopes.