A practical example of ^99mTc distribution based on electron accelerator production

A practical example of ^99mTc distribution to serve the State of Florida has been developed and studied. To serve Florida, an electron accelerator is centrally located near Orlando, and it sends daily shipments of (NH₄)₂ ⁹⁹MoO₄ solution to seven nuclear pharmacies for milking. The set of proposed pharmacies is developed. Bach pharmacy has a herd of five active thermal separation units (goats) that are based on the separation of ^99mTc from MoO₃ powders that are precipitated from solution. The impact of the various delays and losses associated with distributed separations in regional nuclear pharmacies has been evaluated. Overall, the unit cost of ^99mTc increases only 20% to 12.8 c/mCi from 10.8 c/mCi in our former baseline study. This result establishes the conclusion that a fully distributed system based on electron accelerator production can be very cost competitive with the current subsidized supply of ⁹⁹Mo/^99mTc. A number of system design goals and options are explored