The US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Energy Dominance Financing (EDF) has issued a conditional commitment for a loan of up to $263m to SHINE to support the construction of Chrysalis, a high-volume medical isotope production facility in Janesville, Wisconsin.
In July 2024, SHINE Technologies was awarded $32m from the DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration (DOE/NNSA) in addition an existing DOE/NNSA’s cooperative agreement with SHINE to help establish a US-produced supply of molybdenum‑99 (Mo-99), without the use of highly enriched uranium (HEU). Mo-99 is extensively used in nuclear medicine and support the ongoing construction of Chrysalis.
SHINE says that, on completion, Chrysalis will provide a sustainable, reliable source of Mo-99 for the US and satisfy more than one-third of the world’s demand. SHINE plans to produce Mo-99 commercially in early 2027. Current Mo-99 production is limited to only a handful of government-owned nuclear research reactors located abroad. Because of Mo-99’s short half-life, about one-third of the product is lost during cross-continental transportation.
DOE/NNSA awarded the cooperative agreement to SHINE in 2021 through a competitive process under a Funding Opportunity Announcement. The agreement is implemented under a 50%-50% cost-sharing arrangement between SHINE and DOE/NNSA. The additional funding brings the total to $74m. Since 2010, the DOE/NNSA has awarded SHINE a total of $114m towards this project.
“The SHINE Chrysalis project is vital to improving the nuclear supply chain and contributing to a strong next-generation nuclear workforce while onshoring this critical production and improving national security,” said EDF Director Gregory A Beard. He added that using EDF’s loan authority to further commercialise a project long supported by DOE would ensure a reliable and secure domestic supply chain while lowering costs.
“SHINE is the key to ending reliance on imports of foreign-produced Mo-99 and ensuring US patients have reliable access to American-made medical isotopes, said Dr Matthew Napoli, NNSA’s Deputy Administrator for Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation (DNN). “NNSA’s leadership made this concept a reality, providing funding and technical support from our national laboratories that enabled this innovative US company to go from an idea on paper to a commercial facility that is 75% complete. The EDF conditional loan will get this project across the finish line, and SHINE’s market entry will be a major win for American nuclear medicine, fusion technology, and nuclear non-proliferation leadership.”
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 funds the loan.
According to SHINE, Chrysalis represents the first deployment of new nuclear technology using novel American-made fusion systems to produce Mo-99. “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.”
SHINE’s process uses a fusion-driven neutron source to strike a liquid (aqueous) low-enriched uranium target. Unlike traditional solid targets that are discarded after use, SHINE’s liquid target allows for the re-extraction and reuse of unspent uranium, drastically lowering material costs. The process generates significantly less high-level radioactive waste. Avoiding the regulatory and safety overheads of a fission reactor, while maintaining a continuous “closed-loop” fuel cycle, lowers overall operating expenses.
Once fully operational, Chrysalis will be the largest medical isotope production facility 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 others.
SHINE uses a beam-target fusion system rather than the magnetic or inertial confinement methods. This process focuses on generating a steady, high-flux stream of neutrons to drive secondary nuclear reactions. A low-energy electrostatic particle accelerator accelerates a high-current beam of deuterium ions. This beam strikes a tritium gas target. The resulting deuterium-tritium (D-T) fusion reactions release high-energy, 14 MeV neutrons.
The technology relies on strong electric fields to contain the plasma.
The systems are designed for steady-state operation, meaning they provide a continuous flow of neutrons rather than short bursts. Current systems achieve up to 50 trillion fusion reactions per second, making them the world’s brightest steady-state D-T neutron sources.
In the medical isotope production process, these fusion-generated neutrons pass through the walls of the fusion device into a surrounding sub-critical aqueous solution of low-enriched uranium. The 14 MeV neutrons cause the uranium atoms in the liquid to split (fission) producing the desired isotopes, such as Mo-99.
SHINE is implementing plasma window technology to sustain higher particle beam power densities (over 100 kW/cm²) while reducing the need for massive vacuum pumping systems. The facility includes a full-scale purification system to recover and recycle the tritium gas used in the fusion reactions.
