Contact:
Katrina Pitas
(608) 210-1060
pr@shinemed.com
Janesville, WI – SHINE Medical Technologies, Inc. (SHINE), a company dedicated to being the world leader in the safe, clean, affordable production of medical isotopes, held a groundbreaking ceremony yesterday to celebrate the start of construction on Building One.
The first building to be built for the SHINE campus, Building One will be one of the most advanced, private, nuclear technology facilities in the world. The facility will initially be used to house the first fully integrated, full-size SHINE production system. During construction of SHINE’s main production facility, Building One will be used to train employees and develop operating history with equipment. Going forward, Building One will be a state-of-the-art technology development center.
“Building One’s name was chosen because it’s intended to be a technological genesis building,” said Greg Piefer, founder and CEO of SHINE. “It’s intended to be a laboratory in which we’re going to continue to develop new technologies to keep SHINE at the forefront of not just medical isotope production, but to go beyond that.”
“SHINE is a story about innovation, thinking outside the box, testing a new theory, validating the technology and changing the way that isotopes are produced,” said Mark Freitag, Janesville City Manager. “Greg and the SHINE team have been wonderful partners … thank you for helping Janesville… create opportunities for new talent and new industry to stimulate and invigorate our community, as has been our tradition for more than 150 years.”
“We’re incredibly proud to be a small part of this project,” said Tricia Braun, Deputy Secretary and COO of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation. “[I]t’s companies like yours and entrepreneurs like you that are helping to grow and will continue to develop Wisconsin’s tech industry.”
“SHINE is a great success story and is one that all of us at UW Madison are proud of,” said Ian Robertson, Dean of the UW College of Engineering. “You likely are familiar with the Wisconsin Idea. It holds that the work that happens on our campus will benefit people around the state and beyond. … Today we are celebrating a company that started with basic research that turned into a solution to provide, in a safe, clean, affordable manner, medical tracers and cancer treatment elements.”
“I look around and I see what years ago was just a concept and an idea, coming to fruition,” said House Speaker, Paul Ryan. “Isn’t it kind of crazy that we have to rely on foreign countries to supply us with these medical isotopes? … Why would we want to have to rely on another country to supply something so precious and important as this? … Right here in America, in Janesville, Wisconsin, we will be providing this really crucial medical technology. Right here so we can rely on ourselves.”
Approximately 200 people came to the site to mark the occasion, including SHINE employees, investors, vendors and customers.
The groundbreaking for Building One comes as the company prepares to build its main production facility in Janesville, Wisconsin, after receiving its construction permit from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission last year. The SHINE facility will produce molybdenum-99 and other medical isotopes used to detect and treat a wide variety of diseases, including heart disease and cancer.
