![]() | |
Company type | L.L.C. |
---|---|
Industry | Radiopharmaceutical |
Founded | June 2010 |
Founder | Gregory Piefer |
Headquarters | |
Website |
shinefusion |
Shine Technologies (stylized as SHINE Technologies, where "SHINE" originated as an acronym for "subcritical hybrid intense neutron emitter"), [1] formerly named SHINE Medical Technologies, is a private corporation based in Janesville, Wisconsin. As of February 2016, the company was planning to build a facility to produce radioactive isotopes for medical applications. [2] [3]
In 2009, the supply of molybdenum-99 (Mo-99), a precursor to technetium-99m used in more than 30 medical imaging procedures, fell short of demand due to maintenance idling of a pair of research reactors, one located in the Netherlands, forcing doctors to use more dangerous isotopes. [4] [5] By 2016, the largest global supplier of the isotope, a Canadian research reactor, was scheduled to go idle. [4] [5] In 2010, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), a part of the United States Department of Energy, began funding a number of method development ventures aimed at ensuring that shortages in the United States could be avoided [5] as well as reducing the use of highly enriched uranium and with it lowering the risk of nuclear proliferation. [6]
SHINE was among a handful of early recipients of funds from the NNSA program and received US$13,900,000 through it as of 2014. [5] The company has also relied on venture capital funding, having secured up to US$125,000,000 from Deerfield Management beginning in October 2014. [5] [7]
The 2014 market for medical isotopes was estimated to be about US$600,000,000 per year. [5] Several companies in addition to SHINE were vying for part of this market, and the need for redundancy in production was expected to support a number suppliers beyond the minimum needed to meet current demand. [5]
The company had plans in 2015 to start production-scale generation of isotopes in 2018, having pushed the proposed start date back several times, [8] and it secured a number of supply agreements predicated on this start date. [5] [9]
SHINE also secured a US$150,000 National Science Foundation grant in 2014 to develop production methods for Iodine-131, which is used in the treatment of Graves' disease and certain cancers. [10]
Original technology for production of Mo-99 was reactor-based and unavoidably produced significant nuclear waste. [4] SHINE developed plans to use particle accelerator technology developed at the University of Wisconsin–Madison by company founder Gregory Piefer. [5] [10] The method, referred to as "neutron generator technology", uses helium and free neutrons, produced by colliding a beam of deuterium particles with tritium gas, to bombard low-level enriched uranium targets leading to the production of "useful isotopes with minimal waste". [5] In addition to the diagnostically useful Mo-99, the process can also produce Iodine-131, which is used in medical treatments. [2]
In 2013, SHINE constructed a full-scale prototype particle accelerator at their facility in Monona, Wisconsin, to be used to demonstrate the technology. Eight accelerators would be used at the Janesville facility. [11]
On June 15, 2015, Argonne National Laboratory demonstrated that SHINE's production, separation and purification process could produce Mo-99 which meets purity specifications of the British Pharmacopoeia. [6]
The NRC approved SHINE's construction permit for a facility in Janesville, Wisconsin in late February 2016. If constructed, the facility would still require NRC licensing to operate. [3] In 2014 the facility was originally slated for opening in 2016, and the planned opening was then delayed to 2017. [12] As of February 2016, construction was planned for 2017 with production potentially beginning in 2019. [3]
The company has supply agreements in place and plans to build a production plant in Janesville, WI.