Oh...my GOD isotopes save lives ??

NUKE ROCKY44 · Senior Member

Oh...my GOD isotopes save lives ??

GoogleNaut · Guru

Interestingly--I was reading that the Canadian Parliament voted to restart the production on an emergency basis. Is there some reason why the Chalk River Research Reactor is special in this case? Is it the particular arrangement of the target array at Chalk River that makes it one of the only producers of medical isotopes in the world, or is it the processing facility on site...I guess I don't understand why most medical isotopes used comes from this one facility (i.e., why can't more research reactor produce medical isotopes?)

NUKE ROCKY44 · Senior Member

Sounds like over regulation to me and the screw-up on policy insued forcing
the shutdown. This is an old reactor, like where are reactors in the U.S. offering medical isotopes? Isn't there suppose to be a back-up? Since the number of patient backlogs must be huge by now.

Yeah, they have restarted the research reactor but not after some heads rolled:

The Canadian Press

December 14, 2007 at 5:37 PM EST

Ottawa The head of Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. has resigned in the wake of the fiasco that shut down the Chalk River nuclear reactor and prompted a worldwide medical crisis.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper accepted the resignation of Michael Burns today.

Mr. Harper has named a new chair, Glenna Carr, as well as a new CEO, Hugh MacDiarmid.

The Chalk River reactor produces about half the world's supply of radioisotopes used in diagnostic cancer and cardiology tests.

It has been shut down for more than a month due to safety concerns.

That prompted the government to step in this week with emergency legislation to get the reactor restarted as quickly as possible.

Posted By STEPHEN UHLER

Dec 13, 2007

Concern over two of eight main cooling pumps, which led to the shutdown of Chalk River's reactor and shortages in the world's medical isotope supply, is the result of a professional difference of opinion between Atomic Energy of Canada Limited and the nuclear regulator which oversee it.

This as legislation directing Atomic Energy of Canada Limited to fire up the NRU reactor immediately was submitted for the Senate's blessing, following a marathon session in Parliament which started Tuesday.

While the reactor was shut down in November to undergo routine maintenance, safety inspectors with the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) noticed the two pumps had not been hooked up to an emergency power supply, as the CNSC assumed had already been done when it renewed AECL's operating licence in 2006.

The nuclear watchdog wanted the work to be completed immediately, which AECL began to do voluntarily.

This led to the longer shutdown and the current shortage of medical isotopes, which the Chalk River facility produces two-thirds of the world's supply.

While both sides do not dispute the need to get the work done, the two disagree as to how this is to be prioritized.

AECL says it can operate safely with one pump hooked up - work it has recently completed - while the commission insists both pumps have to be ready before operations can begin.

The CNSC stated when it was examining the licence application, it already had serious concerns about the safety of the 50-year-old NRU reactor, which was slated to be decommissioned in 2005. [LINK]

-- Edited by NUKE ROCKY44 at 02:25, 2007-12-15