Lynchburg Business

The Babcock & Wilcox Company Meets a Critical Need to Save Lives

Issue: February 2010 by Johanna Calfee in Inside The Magazine, Technology

The news does not sound promising: Your doctor has spotted something suspicious in one of your kidneys. The worst case scenario is a cancerous tumor, but your doctor needs nuclear imaging to see inside in order to make a proper diagnosis. To do so, he must inject medical isotopes into your body and then use a radiation-sensitive camera to find and diagnose the potential tumor.

“After all,” he says, “the earlier the detection, the better the possible outcome.”

On the day of your appointment, you walk into the medical facility with as much hope as you can muster. The anxiety you feel starts to subside as your doctor walks toward you—until he delivers the one piece of news you never saw coming: A factory halfway around the world that manufactures  molybdenum-99 (Mo-99), an isotope which produces technetium-99m (Tc-99m) has shut down due to a mechanical hiccup.

“While it sounds like no big deal in theory,” your doctor explains, “this isotope is critical to your test today because it allows the radioactive camera I will be using to see inside your kidney. Without it, we cannot test you today. I’m sorry, but your diagnosis will have to wait.”

If the scenario seems far-fetched, consider the fact that right now, 100 percent of the nation’s Mo-99 supply (the most widely used medical isotope in the world) is imported from other countries—and the majority of this multibillion dollar industry is run on the backs of foreign facilities with aging machinery. Then consider that the Chalk River nuclear reactor in Ontario broke down last spring, temporarily cutting off two-thirds of America’s Mo-99 supply. Just a few months later in July 2009, the rest of that supply was threatened when a Dutch reactor underwent a month of repair work, resulting in a delay in testing and diagnosis around medical facilities in the U.S.

These two events combined put in jeopardy some 16 million U.S. patients who benefit annually from nuclear medicine procedures for diagnosis and detection of cancer, blood clots or heart disease, among other things (Arlington Medical Resources, Diagnostic Imaging Market Guide, 2008). Though Mo-99 is critical for about 80 percent of all nuclear-medicine tests, its short, six-hour half-life means it can’t be stockpiled for more than a few days.

This inconvenient overseas supply versus the high nationwide demand has been a problem without a solution until recently, thanks to the innovative minds at The Babcock & Wilcox Company (B&W), which employs 2,400 people in the Lynchburg area. Last January, Babcock & Wilcox Technical Services Group, Inc. (B&W TSG), an operating group of B&W, announced its partnership with Covidien, a leading pharmaceutical, imaging and solution device supplier, to become the principal U.S. manufacturer of Mo-99. The potential outcome of the agreement is the ability to supply more than 50 percent of the country’s demand for Mo-99 through the company’s Medical Isotope Production System (MIPS).

“When the United States has a domestic source for these isotopes, rather than having to rely on imports from other countries that have had some disruptions, the U.S. healthcare industry will have greater stability in delivering medical imaging services,” Bob Cochran, President of Babcock & Wilcox Technical Services Group, Inc., said.

The collaboration between B&W TSG and Covidien will also create a broad range of resources to support all aspects of the MIPS program, including plans for a state-of-the-art facility that will contain several 100 to 200 kilowatt reactors, with production expected to begin in 2014.

“We are making great progress on our program. The design work is going well, and the licensing procedures are going well,” Cochran said. “Working in concert with Covidien, this is a significant advancement in technology that B&W is proud to lead. We are still determining where the facility will be located, and the Lynchburg area is one of the locations under consideration.”

Among the many benefit of MIPS is that it will produce far less radioactive waste, and no nuclear weapons-grade waste to speak of. Most of the current reactor production of Mo-99 uses highly enriched uranium (HEU) and, therefore, produces a significant amount of nuclear weapons-grade radioactive waste. In contrast, B&W TSG has developed solution-based reactor technology that uses low enriched uranium (LEU) and generates only about 1 percent of the radioactive waste compared to the current imported supply.

“There is a lot of support in the U.S. government for developing a domestic source for these isotopes,” Cochran said. “Besides the obvious advantages of not having to obtain these materials from other countries, our system offers the advantage of using low enriched uranium. Many other systems require highly enriched uranium, which could be potentially used by adversaries seeking nuclear materials for malevolent purposes. So our program has the added benefit of supporting the country’s nuclear nonproliferation efforts.”

Support has also been rolling in from Capitol Hill since B&W first announced plans last June to design and deploy a new modular nuclear reactor capable of generating power in 125 megawatt increments, called the B&W mPower™ nuclear reactor. This initiative falls in line with The Clean Energy Act of 2009, a bipartisan bill to promote further investment and development of the nation’s clean energy technologies, including nuclear power, introduced by Senators Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Jim Webb (D-VA) last November.

“By making a concerted investment in nuclear power and other renewable energy technologies, we can effectively address our nation’s energy requirements and also the need to reduce carbon dioxide emissions,” said Senator Webb. “This legislation is a practical approach to move the United States toward providing clean, carbon-free sources of energy, to help invigorate the economy, and to strengthen our workforce with educational opportunities and high-paying jobs on U.S. soil.”

So far, it does appear that B&W’s efforts will create jobs. In order to accommodate its growing engineering and design team working on the new B&W mPower reactor, B&W announced in December 2009 that it signed a multi-year lease with the City of Lynchburg for a 50,000-square foot facility on Ramsey Place. Currently, 35 employees work at the newly acquired facility, though it can be reconfigured to provide office space for up to 300.

“The prospect of growth for this initiative and the benefit to Lynchburg is considerable as we continue to hire designers, engineers and other support personnel,” Chris Mowry, President and Chief Executive Officer, B&W Modular Nuclear Energy, LLC, said.

Among the initiative’s many benefits is the ability to meet local energy needs and address plant site constraints. This could ultimately move the U.S. closer to foreign counterparts when it comes to nuclear power consumption. Currently, France has the lowest electric rates in Europe and receives 80 percent of its electricity from nuclear power, while Japan’s numbers are at 35 percent. With the U.S. consuming 25 percent of the world’s energy, there is much room to grow in the way of nuclear power.

“Since the B&W mPower reactor offers a lower cost and flexible power generation capacity that can be added in increments of 125 megawatts, our solution is very attractive to a variety of potential customers,” Mowry said. “We believe this reactor will offer a practical, affordable near-term solution to the world’s growing demand for the clean, zero-emission operations base load power necessary to support the emergence of renewable energy solutions.”
To help bring this “attractive solution” closer to reality, B&W also formed a new business unit last summer called B&W Modular Nuclear Energy, LLC, to help lead the charge when it comes to development, licensing and delivery of nuclear power in the future. As of press time, B&W is fully engaged in pre-licensing activities with Nuclear Regulatory Commission, with intent to submit an application for design certification in 2012.

“This schedule would support construction of the first B&W mPower plant in 2015, which would potentially bring the first B&W mPower reactor online by 2020,” Mowry explained. “As you can imagine, it’s an exciting time for our company. I think it’s also an exciting time for Lynchburg.”