In January 2000, CIL announced construction of the world's largest isotope separation facility for the production of highly enriched Oxygen-18. CIL has made this commitment in order to provide a solution for the current shortage of ¹⁸O water. Increasing demands for highly enriched (95%) ¹⁸O water have come from the international PET community and for 10% ¹⁸O water from the metabolic research community. By building this new facility, CIL hopes to ensure that ample supplies of ¹⁸O will be available for all important research needs and diagnostic efforts for the foreseeable future.