Some might celebrate the shutdown of a nuclear plant. But the temporary closure of the near Ottawa, Canada, has meant the widespread cancellation of medical tests because of shortages of the radioisotopes it produces.
The plant provides more than half of the world鈥檚 supply of molybdenum-99. This breaks down to technetium-99m, which is used in around 80 per cent of nuclear imaging procedures, including heart, bone and kidney scans. Doctors often rely on imaging to decide treatment.
Chalk River was closed for scheduled maintenance on 18 November and was supposed to reopen by 23 November, but problems mean it will now stay closed until at least early January.
Advertisement
Hospitals say they were caught off guard by the announcement. 鈥淭here was absolutely no warning that supplies would be gone,鈥� says Christopher O鈥橞rien, president of the Ontario Association of Nuclear Medicine. Thousands of non-urgent tests have been cancelled and doctors are warning that nuclear imaging could stop entirely if they cannot get the isotopes elsewhere.
Only four other reactors worldwide produce the raw material for the radioisotopes. Both molybdenum-99 and technetium-99m have short half-lives and so cannot be stockpiled.
The Nuclear Age 鈥� Learn more about all things nuclear in our explosive .
