The practical use of isotopes is almost as long as the history of the discovery of radioactivity and development of technology to produce them.

The National Isotope Development Center (NIDC) interfaces with the User Community and manages the coordination of isotope production across the facilities and business operations involved in the production, sale, and distribution of isotopes. A virtual center, the NIDC is funded by the Isotope Development and Production for Research and Applications (IDPRA) subprogram of the Office of Nuclear Physics in the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science. PNNL's Isotope Program operates in a multi-program category-2 nuclear facility, the Radiochemical Processing Laboratory (RPL), that contains 16 hot cells and 20 gloveboxes. As part of the DOE Isotope Program, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory dispenses strontium-90, neptunium-237, radium-223, and thorium-227. PNNL's Isotope Program uses a dedicated hot-cell for strontium-90 dispensing and a dedicated glovebox for radium-223 and thorium-227 dispensing. PNNL's Isotope Program has access to state of the art analytical equipment in the RPL to support their research and production activities. DOE Isotope Program funded research at PNNL has advanced the application of automated radiochemistry for isotope such as zirconium-89 and astatine-211 in partnership with the University of Washington.

Isotope production and distribution have been part of DOE's mission since at least 1954, when the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 specified the role of the U.S. government in isotope distribution. DOE's Isotope Program fills this role by providing isotopes to support the national and international need for a reliable supply for use in medicine, industry, and research. The Isotope Program provides both radioactive isotopes, called radioisotopes, and stable isotopes, which are not radioactive.

"DOE is the only domestic supplier for many of the over 300 different isotopes it sells that are critical to medical, commercial, research, and national security applications. Previous shortages of some isotopes, such as helium-3, an isotope used to detect radiation at seaports and border crossings, highlight the importance of managing supplies of and demand for critical isotopes. Prior reports by GAO and others highlighted risks and challenges faced by the Isotope Program, such as assessing demand for certain isotopes. GAO was asked to determine (1) which isotopes are produced, sold, or distributed either by the Isotope Program or NNSA and how the two agencies make isotopes available for commercial and research applications; (2) what steps the Isotope Program takes to provide isotopes for commercial and research applications; and (3) the extent to which DOE is assessing and mitigating risks facing the Isotope Program. GAO reviewed DOE and NNSA documents, visited Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and interviewed cognizant agency officials."

This is an overview of the the isotope experiments performed in July 2016.

This is an overview of the the isotope experiments performed in August 2016.