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SHINE sets sights on safety: Open house set for Tuesday

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JANESVILLE — There's a reason "safe" is the first adjective in the SHINE Medical Technologies mission statement, the company's founder said.

"You can't possibly run this business reliably if you're not running it safely," said Greg Piefer, SHINE's chief executive officer.

Running the business safely is one thing.

Keeping the community in which it operates safe is another.

Piefer said SHINE would do both.

It would run a facility that would not pose radiation hazards to the community, even if a meteor hit the plant, he said. It would import uranium bars safe enough to hold in your hand and export finish products and waste that's less dangerous than those found at typical cancer treatment facilities.

If the company does not operate safely, it has no chance of becoming the world leader in the clean, affordable production of medical tracers and cancer treatment elements, he said.

SHINE is hosting a community open house Tuesday to discuss its plans for a medical isotope production plant on Janesville's south side.

Piefer expects much of Tuesday's discussion will center on safety issues associated with the proposal.

In fact, he encourages it.

"We want people to ask questions and become informed about what we want to do," he said. "We wouldn't be doing this if there was anything we're afraid of answering.

"We think we have a good story to tell."

If the company clears a series of local, state and federal hurdles, it will produce molybdenum-99, a medical isotope used in more than 50,000 diagnostic nuclear medicine procedures every day in the United States.

In Rock County, SHINE could join another medical isotope maker, NorthStar Medical Radioisotopes, which plans to build a $194 million plant in Beloit and create more than 150 jobs by 2016.

SHINE and NorthStar are two of just four U.S. companies supported by the National Nuclear Security Administration as it pushes for a more reliable and diverse supply of Mo-99, which is primarily used for detecting heart disease and determining stages of cancer progression.

Historically, most Mo-99 used in the United States has been produced in Canada and the Netherlands using highly enriched uranium in high power research reactors. Both the Canadian and Netherlands reactors are operating beyond their licensed lives, and unscheduled shutdowns of the reactors in 2009 and 2010 caused worldwide shortages that delayed or canceled millions of medical procedures.

Piefer said SHINE's production facility would be about 50,000 square feet. It would sit on 84 acres the city is buying and annexing across Highway 51 from the Southern Wisconsin Regional Airport.

On it's face, a parcel that size is significantly more than big enough for a 50,000-square-foot building.

But the acreage, Piefer said, is necessary for security and safety.

The building would be located in the center of the property, ensuring a wide buffer to the property's fenced borders.

"We aren't going to pave it over or anything like that," he said. "In fact, we would like to allow it to be farmed, if we can."

The buffer would do more than keep people away from the plant. It also would protect them in case of an accident inside the facility.

"In the worst case scenario, which we think would be a direct meteor strike on the plant, the people of Janesville would not have a significant health impact," Piefer said.

If a meteor does hit the facility, a homeowner on the property's perimeter would get a radioactive exposure equivalent to the dose he or she might get from a doctor who suspects a thyroid problem, he said.

"If you have a house at the fence, and the wind is blowing perfectly toward your house, you would get a radioactive exposure equivalent to the dose you would get if your doctor suspects a thyroid problem."

Inside the plant

At the heart of SHINE's production would be six units each producing one vial of a Mo-99 solution a week.

SHINE would use a manufacturing process and technology developed by Piefer that he said offers major advantages over existing production technologies. It would not use highly enriched uranium, and it would not require a nuclear reactor.

Instead, it would rely on a particle accelerator to generate hundreds of times less radioactive waste than any current Mo-99 production process, Piefer said.

In short, deuterium ions would be shot through the accelerator at about 12 million mph. In a heavily protected chamber, they would collide with tritium gas and release neutrons that would travel into a tank of liquid containing uranium-235, also known as low-enriched uranium.

The U.S. Department of Energy would supply SHINE with uranium bars, which would be trucked to the facility.

"In that form, it's completely safe," said Eric Van Abel, SHINE's nuclear systems engineer. "You can hold it in your hand."

The uranium bars would be dissolved in a solution. Neutrons would hit the uranium-235 in the solution and create Mo-99 and other isotopes. They would be sent to an extractor bed of sand-like material. The Mo-99 would be washed out, purified to medical standards and packaged for immediate delivery to SHINE's customers.

Van Abel said the sand-like material in the finger-size extraction beds would be packed into steel canisters each week. The canisters would be stored on-site for about three years and then transported to a DOE-approved disposal site.

Outside the plant

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the state Department of Transportation would need to approve all of SHINE's packaging, whether it's for waste or the finished product, Piefer said.

Vials of Mo-99 would be flown from the airport each week to major pharmaceutical distributors. The company hopes to do business with companies in St. Louis, Boston and, possibly, Ottawa, Canada.

Piefer said one possible destination for the plant's waste is the DOE's Waste Isolation Pilot Plant outside Carlsbad, N.M.

The waste would include the plant's extraction beds, used uranium solution and other elements.

After three years of storage, Piefer said, the material would decay to a level that make it not a significant threat to human safety.

"The closest analogy I can use in terms of radiation is that the entirety of our waste stream after three years will be much less than you'd find at any cancer treatment hospital in this country," he said.

Outside eyes

Janesville City Manager Eric Levitt said the city is well aware of SHINE's development and production plans, but assessing the safety of each is difficult.

"Just about everything they want to do is technology that's still in development," Levitt said.

"We have put specific language in the development agreement with SHINE that will allow us at each step along the way to have our own independent experts look at what's proposed from a safety perspective," he said.

Advancing beyond each step would be contingent on city approval.

"There are things in the development agreement that allow the city and its outside experts to vet what's going on before the city makes any financial commitments," Piefer said.

As early as Feb. 13, the city council is expected to discuss and possibly sign a development agreement with SHINE. Details of the agreement have not yet been made public.

Piefer said he and his team are looking forward to Tuesday's open house.

"We want people to see how this will all work and address any concerns," he said. "The one thing I do know is that I would have no problem at all living in a house next to our property's fence."

SHINE jobs already posted

There's little doubt SHINE Medical Technologies is serious about job creation in Janesville.

The medical isotope maker posted a slew of job openings on its website before announcing its intention to build a production facility in Janesville.

SHINE will not start filling production positions today, tomorrow or next week. Some jobs are targeted for 2013, but most would be filled in 2014 and beyond.

Next year's hires are expected to fill quality control and health and safety jobs. Positions listed for 2014 include lab, waste management, logistics, production and marketing.

Some of the jobs would require either undergraduate or graduate degrees. Examples include industrial hygienists, health physicists and quality engineers.

The majority, however, would require prior experience or possibly an associate degree.

When it begins production—most likely in 2015—SHINE plans to be employing about 125 people, and most of them will be in the production area.

"For the production jobs, we're not talking about elite special forces," said Greg Piefer, SHINE's founder and chief executive officer. "They can come from anywhere, and obviously we want to hire as many people from the Janesville area as possible.

"They just need to be willing to study hard, learn how the plant operates, work well with a group and be proud of their work. For that, we will pay them well."

Production jobs are expected to pay between $50,000 and $60,000 per year, he said.

Piefer said the company would build a database of resumes and contact applicants if and when positions open.

On Friday, Piefer met with officials at Blackhawk Technical College to discuss the development of a curriculum that would train workers for jobs at the facility.

Right now, the company is looking for 20 to 25 people to work in the design and construction of the facility on Highway 51 south of Janesville.

Piefer said those positions are highly technical, very well paid and not likely to be filled by people walking the streets of Janesville.

"Those people aren't even walking around Madison," he said. "We've been doing a national search, and, quite frankly, it's been a struggle to find people.

"What we're doing is so new that people have some of the aptitudes but not all of them."