Summary: Isotopes have important applications in medicine, industry, and scientific research. Although the Department of Energy's (DOE) program to produce and distribute isotopes is relatively small, it is an important domestic source of this material. GAO testified that DOE faces significant obstacles in trying to run the program on a self-supporting basis. Because DOE has been unable to recoup program costs through isotope sales, its original $16-million operating fund has been depleted and the agency is borrowing money to keep the program solvent. High, uncontrollable operating costs; lack of capital funding; and foreign competition--much of it subsidized--have been the main barriers to the program's self-sufficiency. DOE has hired a consulting firm to help redesign the program. DOE and the firm will then seek ways to finance DOE's newly defined role in the isotope field. But continued government funding is likely to be needed to keep the program afloat. GAO testified that had DOE completed such a study before reorganizing its isotope program in 1989, many of these problems could have been avoided.
