Department of Energy
The Department of Energy (DOE) produces and sells many stable and radioactive isotopes that are used by domestic and international customers for medicine, industry, and research. The focus of the DOE isotope program is on producing materials that are not available from commercial vendors. In the FY 2009 President’s budget, the isotope production program was moved from the DOE Office of Nuclear Energy to the DOE Office of Science/Nuclear Physics.
In addition to producing isotopes, the DOE Office of Science awards competitive grants in nuclear medicine / molecular imaging and therapy research. The emphasis of this research is on radionuclides, physics, computation and instrumentation. The basic science supported by DOE is later translated into clinical use through research in the National Institutes of Health and private sector.