SHINE Technologies announced today that it has signed a contract with the Department of Energy as part of its Uranium Lease and Take-back Program.

According to a release, SHINE will receive the low-enriched uranium necessary to produce molybdenum-99 (Mo-99), a medical radioisotope used in more than 40,000 daily medical diagnostic procedures across the United States.

“We are incredibly proud to partner with the (National Nuclear Security Administration) and DOE to be deploying an integrated irradiation and processing facility to manufacture U.S.-based, high-specific-activity (HSA) Mo-99 that millions of patients rely on every year throughout the (United States),” SHINE CEO Greg Piefer said in a statement. “We consider the ability to produce HSA Mo-99 without the need for highly enriched uranium to be a huge win for both patient access to essential medical diagnostic procedures, and for nuclear security.”

The American Medical Isotopes Production Act of 2012 directed DOE/NNSA to establish a program to make uranium available to medical isotope producers in the United States.