Topic: Access to Medical Isotopes
Country: Austria
Delegate Name: Mario Lei
School: Forest Hills Northern High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Austria position papers GLIMUN 2014 committees
Nuclear medicine is a medical specialty involving the application of radioactive substances in the diagnosis and treatment of disease. These radioactive substances come in the form of Molybdenum-99 and Technetium-99m, which are medical isotopes.These medical isotopes are used for scanning, imaging, and research. It can also be used along with chemotherapy. However, there is a shortage of these isotopes as there are only a few reactors that produce most of the world’s isotopes. Many of these reactors are more than forty years old. The reactors that produce these isotopes are either shut down, in the process of shutting down, or being repaired. In addition, there is the risk of HEU( Highly Enriched Uranium) being used as a weapon.
Austria has had some issues with medical isotopes. Similar to many countries, the shortage has affected Austria as well. Some of the reactors in the European Union have been shut down. There has also been an extended time scale associated with the replacement of the main reactors.
This is a prominent issues that affects all nations. Therefore, Austria advises that all nations collaborate on finding solutions for the short, medium, and long terms. All nations should also share monitoring data to help ensure that all nations have access to a stable isotope supply. In addition, research should be done by all nations to find alternatives to HEU and to find new technology that may help produce medical isotopes while the reactors are out of commision. For security purposes, investigation of alternative transport routes and problems with transportation of medical isotopes is highly advised. Austria would also like the input of other nations as this is a global issue.
