Repairs to key Canadian isotope reactor complete

• Public Health • Jun 17, 10

Repairs have been completed on a Canadian nuclear reactor that supplied a third of the world’s medical isotopes, and the operator says it is ready to restart production more than a year after a heavy water leak was discovered at the aging facility.

Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd said on Wednesday that the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission has scheduled a June 28 hearing on its application to restart the reactor in Chalk River, Ontario. AECL hopes to resume isotope production in late July.

The more than 50-year-old facility was shut down in May 2009 after a small leak of heavy water, used as a moderator and coolant in the reaction process, was discovered. The difficulty of the welding job to repair the leak forced planned restart dates to be repeatedly postponed.

The shutdown of a key source of the world’s medical isotopes has forced doctors and research facilities to scramble for alternative supplies.

A survey by the Canadian Institute for Health Information released on Wednesday found the number of nuclear medicine exams on Canadian patients for cardiac, bone and lung diagnostic tests dropped nearly 22 percent in October 2009 compared to a year earlier.

A medical isotope is a very small quantity of radioactive material used to perform medicine imaging tests. Isotopes are mixed with different solutions and injected into patients where they give off energy that is read by a special camera.

The health institute said about two third of the medical facilities it surveyed also reported that their costs were going over budget because of an increase in the price of isotopes.

The Canadian government announced in early June that it would spend C$35 million ($34 million) over the next two years to promote the development of new sources of medical isotopes.

The leak within the reactor vessel never posed a health threat to workers or the general public, according to AECL, which is owned by the federal government.

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VANCOUVER (Reuters)