From Fusion to Life Saving Medicine: A Revolution in Isotope Production ~ The Journey of Mo-99

• Harnessing Fusion for Lifesaving Medicine: The Journey of Mo-99
• SHINE Set for $263 Million DOE Loan for Its Fusion Technology
• Avalanche Energy Awarded $5.2M DARPA Contract for Fusion Tech
• ARPA-E Announces $135 Million for Fusion Technology Program
• New UK Strategy for Nuclear Fusion Adds $266 Million to $2.5 billion Fusion Strategy

Harnessing Fusion for Lifesaving Medicine: The Journey of Mo-99

• Shine Technologies Fusion System will produce Molybdenum-99 (Mo-99), the parent isotope of the most widely used diagnostic tool in nuclear medicine.

Harnessing Fusion for Lifesaving Medicine: The Journey of Mo-99

While nuclear fusion is often discussed as a future source of clean energy, companies like SHINE Technologies, based in Janesville, WI, are currently using its power to solve a critical shortage in medical imaging. This process creates Molybdenum-99 (Mo-99), the parent isotope of the most widely used diagnostic tool in nuclear medicine – Technetium-99m (Tc-99m).

Molybdenum-99 (Mo-99) is the parent isotope of technetium-99m (Tc-99m), a short-lived isotope used in roughly 85% of all nuclear-medicine diagnostic scans. Tc-99m supports about 56,000 patient studies daily in the U.S., helping physicians detect heart disease, cancer, and other serious conditions.

‍Because Mo-99 has a 66-hour half-life, it must be processed quickly in technetium generators at radiopharmacies and hospitals. It can’t be stockpiled, so timing and logistics are critical to patient care.

According to the company’s website, Shine’s system combines steady-state, fusion-generated neutrons with a closed-loop liquid uranium target to create Mo-99 efficiently and cleanly. Because the uranium material is recycled, this fusion-based approach achieves medical-grade isotope yields with less waste and lower material cost than reactor-based methods. ‍The resulting Mo-99 is chemically identical to current products, so it integrates seamlessly into existing generator and radiopharmacy networks.

The Fusion Engine: Generating Neutrons

The SHINE process begins with powerful fusion neutron generators. Unlike a traditional nuclear reactor, this system uses a “near-term” application of fusion:

• The Fuel: Light elements like deuterium (a stable isotope of hydrogen) are used.
• The Reaction: These elements are fused together to produce helium and neutron radiation.
• The Output: These high-energy neutrons act as the “tools” needed to create the medical isotopes.

The Transformation: From Uranium to Mo-99

Once the neutrons are generated, they are directed toward a target to trigger a specific chemical reaction.

• Targeting Uranium: The neutrons strike a solution of low-enriched uranium (LEU).
• Breaking Atoms: When the neutron radiation interacts with the uranium, it causes the uranium atoms to break apart (fission) into lighter elements.
• The Result: One of these lighter elements is Molybdenum-99 (Mo-99).
• Efficiency: This system uses a closed-loop liquid target, allowing the uranium to be recycled, which creates less waste than older reactor-based methods.

The Medical Connection: Mo-99 and Tc-99m

Mo-99 itself is not injected into patients; rather, it acts as a “generator” for the actual diagnostic isotope.

& & &

SHINE Set for $263 Million DOE Loan for Its Fusion Technology

• Financing will support completion of Chrysalis, a medical isotope production facility, establishing a U.S. based commercial supply of molybdenum-99

SHINE announced it has received a conditional commitment for a loan of $263 million from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Energy Dominance Financing (EDF). If approved, the financing will support the completion of Chrysalis, a first-of-a-kind medical isotope production facility that will establish the first domestic commercial supply of molybdenum-99 (Mo-99). According to as SHINE press statement, Chrysalis, driven by SHINE’s fusion technology platform, is expected to have major advantages over conventional production methods.

SHINE said in its press statement that Chrysalis represents the first deployment of new nuclear technology at this scale. The facility uses novel American-made fusion systems to produce Mo-99—a life-saving medical isotope used to diagnose heart disease, cancer, and other serious medical conditions. By establishing U.S. production capability, SHINE intends for Chrysalis to address a critical national security vulnerability while demonstrating American leadership in advanced nuclear systems.

“Chrysalis proves that fusion doesn’t need to wait for future breakthroughs to create value for millions of people today,” said Greg Piefer, founder and CEO of SHINE.

“This conditional commitment is a critical catalyst that accelerates our scale-up of the world’s largest medical isotope facility and ensures a secure, domestic source of critical medical isotopes.”

The United States currently relies on imports from Europe, South Africa and Australia for its Mo-99 supply. These imports are produced in venerable but aging U.S. uranium based nuclear research reactors that are nearing or at capacity. Mo-99 decays at about 1 percent per hour, so the U.S. loses roughly one-third of its volume and value during cross-continental transportation. SHINE’s objective is for Chrysalis to shore up global supply chains as a new multi-million dose per year infrastructure expected in the next decade, eliminating logistical vulnerabilities while providing secure, reliable domestic supply.

This milestone is the culmination of more than 15 years of significant collaboration with U.S. National Laboratories and consistent support from the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). This conditional commitment is instrumental in demonstrating the reliability and safety of SHINE’s fusion-based approach, which provides a modern, sustainable alternative to aging nuclear reactors.

Once fully operational, Chrysalis will be one of the largest medical isotope production facilities in the world, demonstrating fusion technology at commercial scale. While primarily focused on Mo-99, the facility is designed to be a versatile source for other critical isotopes, including iodine-131, xenon-133 and many others.

While this conditional commitment from EDF indicates the Department’s intent to provide a loan to finance the project, DOE and the company must satisfy certain technical, legal, environmental, and financial conditions before the Department enters into definitive financing documents and fund the loan.

Regulatory Timeline

NucNet reported that Shine received a construction permit for the Chrysalis building from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in February 2016, and the company broke ground on the facility in May 2019.

Construction of Chrysalis was originally scheduled to be completed by 2022. Shine, however, has twice extended that deadline. Most recently, in December 2025, the NRC approved a request from Shine to amend its construction permit, extending the latest date for completion from December 31, 2025, to December 31, 2029. According to the DOE, the facility is about 75% complete.

Shine attributed the delays to the first-of-a-kind nature of the production facility and said the additional time will allow it to complete the construction, preoperational testing, and licensing of each of the four phases of the phased approach to initial facility operations

& & &

Avalanche Energy Awarded $5.2M DARPA Contract to Use Fusion for Development of Radioisotope Power Technology

• Rads to Watts program advances compact alpha-voltaic technology for next-generation nuclear batteries

Avalanche Energy, a fusion energy startup developing modular compact fusion machines, announced it has been awarded a $5.2 million contract from the DARPA Rads to Watts program to develop next-gen technology for compact, resilient, nuclear batteries. The 30-month program will mature technologies that directly support Avalanche’s mission to commercialize practical, portable fusion power.

DARPA’s Rads to Watts program is one of the agency’s flagship efforts to field compact, long-lived nuclear power systems for defense and space missions where traditional batteries, refueling, and solar power are not viable. Under this contract, Avalanche will develop solid-state, micro-fabricated cells that convert radioisotope-produced alpha particles into electricity – analogous to how a solar cell converts photons into electricity. The cells are designed to convert the kinetic energy of alpha particles from radioisotopes directly into electricity.

The system aims to deliver more than 10 watts per kilogram — enough to continuously power a laptop-class system for months from a device weighing only a few kilograms — while maintaining performance in the harsh radiation environment of space, where conventional electronics would rapidly degrade. Avalanche will validate the device’s operational resilience using both particle accelerators and active radioisotopes.

A Strategic Step Toward Direct Fusion Energy Conversion

While the device being developed by Avalanche for DARPA uses radioisotopes, the underlying physics is directly relevant to Avalanche’s long-term fusion roadmap: converting energetic charged particles into electricity with high efficiency. The project will develop degradation-resilient micro-structures (micro-chips) that will first be used for radioisotope-produced alpha particles, but ultimately support direct energy conversion from the same particles produced in their fusion machines.

“The DARPA contract represents a critical milestone in our path to practical fusion power,” said Robin Langtry, co-founder and CEO of Avalanche Energy.

Building the Supply Chain and Capabilities Required to make Fusion a Reality

The DARPA award advances energy conversion technology directly applicable to fusion, while accelerating demand for high-power radioisotopes. The very same fusion machines that produce high-energy alpha particles will also produce high-energy neutrons. The neutrons produced are also efficient at creating the same radioisotopes needed for the Rads to Watts program, creating a reinforcing supply-and-technology flywheel around Avalanche’s core fusion platform.

Multi-Institutional Collaboration for Defense and Space Applications

Avalanche will lead a multi-institutional team that includes the University of Utah, Caltech, Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), and McQuaide Microsystems. Together, the team will deliver a near-term power technology that also advances the Avalanche’s long-term goal: compact, manufacturable fusion systems capable of powering defense, space, and autonomous platforms.

Growing Government and Private Support for Compact Fusion Technology

The Rads to Watts contract is the latest sign of support for Avalanche’s approach to modular fusion technology. The company announced a $29 million funding round in February 2026, as well as a $1.25 million contract from the innovation arm of the Department of the Air Force, AFWERX, to rapidly develop advanced materials for extreme environments.

Avalanche’s modular compact fusion technology addresses critical energy needs for defense and commercial applications including:

• Remote military bases and forward operating locations
• Space propulsion and power systems
• Underwater unmanned vehicles (UAVs)
• Critical infrastructure including data centers, remote communities, and other grid-challenged settings that demand resilient, carbon-free baseload power

How the Orbitron Works: A Layperson’s Guide

The firm is developing a 1-100kWe compact fusion machine called “The Orbitron”, which Avalanche says will be small enough to sit on an office desk. The unique physics of the Orbitron allows for its compact size which is a key enabler for rapid development, scaling, and a wide variety of applications.

The Orbitron fusion system, developed by Avalanche Fusion, is designed as a “compact fusion machine” roughly the size of a desktop computer. Unlike traditional fusion reactors that use massive magnets or lasers, the Orbitron uses electrostatic and magnetic fields to create a miniature environment where atoms can collide and fuse.

To understand the Orbitron, imagine a miniature solar system where the rules of gravity are replaced by electricity. (See image below)

The Central “Sun” (The Cathode): At the heart of the device is a central rod-like electrode called a cathode, which is charged with an extremely high negative voltage (up to 300,000 volts).

The “Planetary” Fuel (The Ions): Fusion fuel, typically made of hydrogen isotopes like deuterium, is stripped of its electrons to become positively charged “ions”. These ions are injected into a high-vacuum chamber surrounding the cathode.

The “Secret Sauce” (Electron Co-confinement): A major challenge in fusion is that positive ions naturally repel each other, preventing them from getting close enough to fuse. To solve this, the Orbitron uses a “magnetic bottle”—a weak magnetic field—to trap a cloud of negatively charged electrons in the same space. These electrons neutralize the repulsive force between the ions, allowing them to pack together more densely.

Collision and Fusion: As thousands of ions zoom around the cathode in overlapping orbits, they eventually collide with enough force to fuse together. This fusion reaction releases a burst of energy.

From Fusion to Power

The energy released from these collisions can be captured in two ways:

• Heat to Electricity: In current designs, high-energy particles (neutrons) hit the inner walls of the chamber, heating it up. This heat is then used to drive a turbine and generate electricity.
• Direct Conversion: For future iterations, Avalanche is developing “solid-state micro-fabricated cells”. These are designed to capture the kinetic energy of charged particles (like alpha particles) and convert them directly into electricity—similar to how a solar cell converts sunlight into power.

By keeping the system small (1-100kWe), the company aims for a modular approach where multiple Orbitrons can be “stacked” to power anything from a lunar base to a city micro-grid.

& & &

ARPA-E Announces $135 Million for Fusion Technology

• The Largest Fusion Investment in the Agency’s History

At the ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit on 04/08/26, ARPA-E Director Conner Prochaska announced a $135 million commitment to further develop and commercialize fusion technologies. Deployed over the next 18 months, this will constitute the largest concentrated investment in fusion technology in the agency’s history.

This investment accelerates momentum from a decade of ARPA-E’s stewardship of early-stage, high risk technologies across the fusion ecosystem. This investment affirms ARPA-E’s central role in catalyzing the fusion power industry, which barely existed a decade ago.

When ARPA-E entered the fusion space in 2014, the field was dominated by two large-scale approaches: magnetic confinement and inertial confinement. ARPA-E identified a white space–novel, lower-cost architectures and unconventional confinement concepts–and moved fast.

To date, ARPA-E has invested approximately $134 million in commercial fusion technologies. Such public investment has catalyzed more than $1.5 billion in private follow-on funding.

When ARPA-E first entered this technical space, there were 12 fusion companies. Today, there are more than 50 that are collectively backed by $10 billion in private investment. Many of these companies were spun out of ARPA-E funded projects and research.

The New $135 Million Commitment: Faster, Cheaper, Ready to Scale

The $135 million in newly pledged funding will be spread over multiple programs. It significantly expands ARPA-E’s fusion portfolio with investments directed at the toughest technical barriers to commercial fusion power.

Key focus areas for exploration may include:

• Advanced Plasma Heating and Driver Systems: Efficient, lower-cost plasma heating and driver systems to reduce plant costs.
• Next-Generation Fuel Cycles and Fuels: Advanced fuels and novel fueling techniques, such as spin-polarized fusion, to boost power output and simplify the fusion fuel cycle.
• Advanced Power Conversion and Plant Systems: Next-generation pulsed power and power conversion systems for a smaller plant footprint.
• Innovative Fusion Power Plant Architectures: Novel power plant designs and components that improve durability and economic competitiveness.

Prochaska said, “Fusion is no longer whether fusion is possible. The question is how fast we get fusion-generated power on the grid, and whether America leads that achievement.

Seeding an American Fusion Industry

ARPA-E’s early public investment helped build not just individual companies but an entire ecosystem of technology, talent, and supply chain capacity. That innovation model produced some of the most impactful companies in the emerging fusion sector

These firms include Zap Energy, Realta Fusion, Thea Energy, and Type One Energy. These enterprises, as part of the broader portfolio of ARPA-E performers, have attracted more than $1.5 billion in private follow-on investment. ARPA-E has also supported the development of high-temperature superconducting magnet technology at Commonwealth Fusion Systems, which is foundational to their ARC fusion pilot plant.

CHADWICK ~ ARPA-E’s Materials Science Effort for Fusion

The agency’s most recent fusion program is CHADWICK, which seeks to develop the advanced materials and alloys necessary for fusion power plants to operate reliably at commercial scale for the decades-long operational lifetime that is required for them to be reliable and successful.

The goal of the CHADWICK program is to spur the innovation and production of new materials that can maintain room temperature ductility, high thermal conductivity, low activation, dimensional stability, tritium retention, and low plasma erosion after irradiation. This program goes beyond optimization of known alloys to provide a comprehensive wide-ranging survey and analysis of new material chemistries and manufacturing processes by reimagining what is possible in fusion materials.

The CHADWICK program comprises three technical categories. Category A projects will target plasma-facing component materials, Category B teams will validate structural materials, and Category C projects will support analysis and facilitate communications with end users for Category A and/or B teams.

& & &

New UK Strategy for Nuclear Fusion Rolls Out $266 Million

• Government also awards £200 million contract for construction of Step reactor

(NucNet) The UK government has launched a nuclear fusion strategy that it says makes the country the first to establish a clear national path towards commercial fusion energy in a bid to contribute to energy security. The plan involves creating a market framework intended to attract private investment into fusion electricity. A central project is the STEP prototype fusion power plant, planned for a former coal facility at West Burton in Nottinghamshire, northern England.

The government said UK Industrial Fusion Solutions will appoint a consortium called Ilios as construction partner for the Step program under a £200 million (€231 million, $266 million) contract that is a “major milestone” in transforming the West Burton site into the UK’s prototype fusion energy plant.

The announcement follows the publication of the U.K. government’s new fusion strategy, setting the direction for the UK’s long-term approach to developing and delivering fusion energy.

Ilios is a consortium led by a joint venture between Kier and Nuvia, and supported by AECOM, AL_AArchitects and Turner & Townsend.

The appointment comes as UK Industrial Fusion Solutions Ltd, soon to be known as UK Fusion Energy Ltd, enters the next phase of delivery for the Step program. The government said the name change reflects the organization’s growing focus on delivering the prototype fusion plant at West Burton in Nottinghamshire, northern England, and its ambition to lead the industrial team that will design and build future commercial fusion facilities. UK Industrial Fusion Solutions Ltd is a wholly owned subsidiary of the UK Atomic Energy Authority, which is responsible for delivering the Step program.

STEP is the Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production, a prototype power plant at the now decommissioned West Burton coal-fired power plant. The aim is to have the plant online by 2040.

Paul Methven, chief executive officer of UK Industrial Fusion Solutions and responsible officer for Step Fusion, said the appointment of Ilios as construction partner marks a significant milestone for the Step programme.

He said: “Their combined experience in major infrastructure, safety-critical engineering and complex site transformation gives us real confidence as we move from planning into delivery. This partnership will help ensure that West Burton becomes a leading centre of fusion innovation and a cornerstone of the UK’s future clean energy landscape.”

Ilios will be responsible for every aspect of construction at the West Burton site, including acting as principal design and build contractor and delivering all construction work. Last year the UK government announced over £2.5 bilion of funding in support of the Step program.

Where and How the U.K. Goverment is Funding Fusion

The government is making a record investment in fusion energy of over £2.5 billion over 5 years (financial years 2025 to 2026 – 2029 to 2030). Current planned allocations are:

• £1.3 billion delivered through UK Fusion Energy, for the next phase of delivering STEP in partnership with industry. Most of this will be invested in private industry including construction, engineering and other contracts
• £740 million invested into R&D infrastructure and facilities in both magnetic and inertial confinement fusion
• £180 million on building LIBRTI, a globally unique facility to develop fusion fuel technology for power plants
• £125 million on developing the AI Growth Zone at Culham, including £45 million on the new ‘Sunrise’ fusion-dedicated supercomputer
• £110 million on wider industry support, innovation, and commercialization, supporting UK companies to develop new technologies
• £80 million on international collaborations
• £50 million on developing fusion skills training over 2,000 people in fusion related disciplines

# # #