Niowave

Niowave, Inc. is a Michigan-based developer of superconducting radiofrequency (SRF) electron linear accelerators, founded by Dr Terry Grimm and originally built on Department of Energy-funded accelerator R&D. Rather than a reactor, Niowave uses high-power superconducting electron linacs (its facility is licensed to run up to 40 MeV and 100 kW) to drive photonuclear reactions in target materials, producing isotopes via (gamma,n), (gamma,p) and photofission routes, including from uranium and radium targets, without the proliferation concerns associated with highly enriched uranium.

Its stated therapeutic radioisotope programmes include strontium-90/yttrium-90 (its first commercial isotope, with what it describes as ongoing shipments to treat cancer patients using ISO 13485-certified hot cells and processing equipment) and actinium-225, produced from radium-226 targets via a linac-driven route; the company reported shipping Ac-225 product to customers from 2021 and targeted 1-2 mCi/week production by 2022. Niowave also has an active molybdenum-99 programme using low-enriched uranium targets processed through a uranium target assembly (UTA), pursued in part under a NNSA cooperative agreement and reviewed through NRC pre-application meetings, aiming at commercial-scale, reactor-independent Mo-99/Tc-99m supply for North America.

Niowave's linac technology can in principle also produce other beta- and alpha-emitting fission fragments and activation products (for example copper-67, yttrium-90, and various rare-earth isotopes) as a byproduct of its uranium fission-based programme, positioning it as an alternative, non-reactor node in the therapeutic isotope supply chain alongside reactor-based (Lu-177, Mo-99) and cyclotron-based (Ac-225, At-211) producers.