Department of Energy Isotope Program

The U.S. Department of Energy Isotope Program supports the production, as well as the development of production techniques, of radioactive and stable isotopes that are in short supply. Isotopes are high-priority commodities of strategic importance for the Nation and are essential for energy, medical, and national security applications and for basic research. A goal of the program is to make critical isotopes more readily available to meet domestic needs. The National Isotope Development Center (NIDC) is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy Isotope Program (DOE IP). It serves as an interface with the user community and manages the coordination of isotope production across the program facilities at Argonne, Brookhaven, Idaho, Los Alamos, Oak Ridge, and Pacific Northwest National Laboratories. These facilities produce stable and radioactive isotopes in short supply using reactors, accelerators, and other methods. In addition to national laboratory production and development, DOE partners with universities to invest in R&D and to develop production capabilities. These universities not only present unique infrastructure capabilities and expertise but also are essential to workforce development.