The U.S. Energy Department has waived a ban on licenses for the export of weapons-grade uranium for making medical isotopes, which critics said raises proliferation risks and undermines companies that are converting to safer materials.
Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette said in a letter to the top members of the U.S. House of Representatives energy committee that his department had determined that global supplies of a substance made without highly enriched uranium, or HEU, that is used to make medical isotopes were not sufficient to meet the needs of U.S. patients.