The Canadian government has announced that the Chalk River (Ontario) nuclear reactor is going to be shut down this summer, for at least 3 months. Initial estimates were that it would be out of commission for a month, but the latest news has medical experts concerned. Hospitals and cancer-care centers use radioisotopes (radioactive isotopes) for a number of purposes including imaging for detection and diagnosis of cancer or other illnesses, and for the treatment of cancer.
The Chalk River facility supplies nearly a third of the global demand for medical isotopes. Many isotopes are also used in biomedical research (e.g. imaging or cells and organs, and nuclear magnetic resonance), or chemical fate studies, such as for bioremediation. The costs for these compounds are already through the roof ($1000’s for less than 1 mL), so I would guess that costs will likely escalate to unprecedented amounts during the anticipated shortage.
Of particular concern to doctors in Canada is the supply of an isotope called technetium-99m, used for bone and organ scans. This isotope lasts only six hours before decaying, and is derived from another isotope (molybdenum-99) which only lasts 66 hours. Other isotopes used in medicine include cobalt-60, xenon-133, and iodine-131 and 125. The current standard in cancer therapy technology was developed in Canada, and first used in London, Ontario, with the application of Cobalt-60 acquired from Chalk River.
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