Shine Technologies (stylized as SHINE Technologies, where "SHINE" originated as an acronym for "subcritical hybrid intense neutron emitter"), formerly named SHINE Medical Technologies, is a private corporation based in

Janesville, Wisconsin Janesville is a city in Rock County, Wisconsin, United States. It is the county seat and largest city in the county. It is a principal municipality of the Janesville, Wisconsin, Metropolitan Statistical Area and is included in the Madison–Jane ...

. As of February 2016, the company was planning to build a facility to produce radioactive isotopes for medical applications.

Business model

In 2009, the supply of

molybdenum-99 Molybdenum (42Mo) has 33 known isotopes, ranging in atomic mass from 83 to 115, as well as four metastable nuclear isomers. Seven isotopes occur naturally, with atomic masses of 92, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, and 100. All unstable isotopes of molybdenum ...

(Mo-99), a precursor to

technetium-99m Technetium-99m (99mTc) is a metastable nuclear isomer of technetium-99 (itself an isotope of technetium), symbolized as 99mTc, that is used in tens of millions of medical diagnostic procedures annually, making it the most commonly used medical ra ...

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. By 2016, the largest global supplier of the isotope, a Canadian research reactor, was scheduled to go idle. In 2010, the

National Nuclear Security Administration The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is a United States federal agency responsible for safeguarding national security through the military application of nuclear science. NNSA maintains and enhances the safety, security, and e ...

(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 as well as reducing the use of highly enriched uranium and with it lowering the risk of

nuclear proliferation Nuclear proliferation is the spread of nuclear weapons, fissionable material, and weapons-applicable nuclear technology and information to nations not recognized as " Nuclear Weapon States" by the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Wea ...

. SHINE was among a handful of early recipients of funds from the NNSA program and received through it as of 2014. The company has also relied on venture capital funding, having secured up to from

Deerfield Management Deerfield Management ("Deerfield") is an American investment firm headquartered in New York City. It is focused on making public and private investments in the healthcare and biotechnology industries. Deerfield is considered to be one of the la ...

beginning in October 2014. The 2014 market for medical isotopes was estimated to be about per year. 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. The company had plans in 2015 to start production-scale generation of isotopes in 2018, having pushed the proposed start date back several times, and it secured a number of supply agreements predicated on this start date. SHINE also secured a

National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National I ...

grant in 2014 to develop production methods for

Iodine-131 Iodine-131 (131I, I-131) is an important radioisotope of iodine discovered by Glenn Seaborg and John Livingood in 1938 at the University of California, Berkeley. It has a radioactive decay half-life of about eight days. It is associated with nuc ...

, which is used in the treatment of

Graves' disease Graves' disease (german: Morbus Basedow), also known as toxic diffuse goiter, is an autoimmune disease that affects the thyroid. It frequently results in and is the most common cause of hyperthyroidism. It also often results in an enlarged thyr ...

and certain cancers.

Facilities and technology

Original technology for production of Mo-99 was reactor-based and unavoidably produced significant nuclear waste. SHINE developed plans to use particle accelerator technology developed at the

University of Wisconsin–Madison A university () is an educational institution, institution of higher education, higher (or Tertiary education, tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. Universities ty ...

by company founder Gregory Piefer. 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". In addition to the diagnostically useful Mo-99, the process can also produce Iodine-131, which is used in medical treatments. In 2013, SHINE constructed a full-scale prototype

particle accelerator A particle accelerator is a machine that uses electromagnetic fields to propel charged particles to very high speeds and energies, and to contain them in well-defined beams. Large accelerators are used for fundamental research in particle ...

at their facility in

Monona, Wisconsin Monona is a city in Dane County, Wisconsin, United States. A suburb of the state capital, Madison, the city lies on the southeastern shore of Lake Monona, from which the city gets its name. The population was 8,624 at the 2020 census. History Ori ...

, to be used to demonstrate the technology. Eight accelerators would be used at the Janesville facility.{{dead link, date=July 2022} On June 15, 2015,

Argonne National Laboratory Argonne National Laboratory is a science and engineering research United States Department of Energy National Labs, national laboratory operated by University of Chicago, UChicago Argonne LLC for the United States Department of Energy. The facil ...

demonstrated that SHINE's production, separation and purification process could produce Mo-99 which meets purity specifications of the

British Pharmacopoeia The ''British Pharmacopoeia'' (''BP'') is the national pharmacopoeia of the United Kingdom. It is an annually published collection of quality standards for medicinal substances in the UK, which is used by individuals and organisations involve ...

.{{cite web , url= http://www.anl.gov/articles/argonne-confirms-new-commercial-method-producing-medical-isotope , title= Argonne confirms new commercial method for producing medical isotope , website =Argonne National Lab , first= Greg , last= Cunningham , date= June 15, 2015 , access-date=July 17, 2015 The NRC approved SHINE's construction permit for a facility in

in late February 2016. If constructed, the facility would still require NRC licensing to operate.{{cite news , url= http://host.madison.com/wsj/business/shine-medical-wins-nrc-s-ok-to-build-medical-isotope/article_971ae97c-9a7b-5147-8ded-07740210d37a.html , title= SHINE Medical wins NRC's OK to build medical isotope plant , first=Judy , last=Newman , newspaper= Wisconsin State Journal , date= February 25, 2016 , access-date= February 25, 2016 In 2014 the facility was originally slated for opening in 2016, and the planned opening was then delayed to 2017.{{cite news , title = Financing deal for $125 million brings SHINE Janesville plant closer to reality, newspaper=The Janesville Gazette, date = October 10, 2014, url = http://www.gazettextra.com/20141010/financing_deal_for_125_million_brings_shine_janesville_plant_closer_to_reality, access-date = July 23, 2015{{Subscription required As of February 2016, construction was planned for 2017 with production potentially beginning in 2019.

References

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External links

*{{Official website, http://shinemed.com/{{dead link, date=July 2022 *{{cite web , url= http://pbadupws.nrc.gov/docs/ML1435/ML14356A515.html , title= SHINE Medical Technologies v. 0, ML14356A515 , website= NRC.gov , date= May 19, 2015 {{authority control 2010 establishments in Wisconsin Nuclear medicine organizations Dane County, Wisconsin Janesville, Wisconsin Health care companies based in Wisconsin