July 10, 2009
Canada’s medical isotope industry in peril as U.S. moves to make its own supply
The United States is moving to develop its own source of medical isotopes as the lagging repair of a Canadian nuclear reactor leaves Americans “critically short” of the radioactive material.
Nuclear watchers in this country say the loss of Canada’s biggest customer could doom the nuclear research and medical isotopes industry that was pioneered here a half-century ago, prompting a brain drain and leaving Canadians dependent on the United States.
A senior official with the National Nuclear Security Administration said at a meeting of the National Academies in Washington yesterday that his organization is evaluating a broad spectrum of ways to convert reactors in the U.S. to produce a domestic supply of technetium.
The “current supply crisis has captured the attention of the White House” and other top U.S. agencies, Parrish Staples told the meeting.
Dr. Staples estimated it will take $120-million to create a U.S.
facility.
The U.S. has been complaining for some time that major suppliers of isotopes, including the National Research Universal reactor at Chalk River, Ont., use weapons-grade uranium that could get into the hands of terrorists. The outage at Chalk River has reinforced the Americans’ resolve to go their own way.
Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., the Crown corporation that owns the Chalk River reactor, said this week that the outage will last at least until the latter part of this year.
One U.S. supplier of nuclear pharmaceuticals said in a letter to customers on Tuesday that it would be “critically short” of technetium at least two days this week. Another told customers that it could not fill bulk technetium orders for Monday and Tuesday.
An elite group of medical experts and researchers has written to Congress to urge the creation of a domestic supply, saying: “Even if Canada’s reactor is temporarily restored to service, the immediate crisis will only be postponed slightly.” The letter points out that Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said the Canadian government would get out of producing isotopes – which spokesmen say will occur in 2016 when Chalk River’s licence expires.
U.S. isotope supplier Covidien is teaming up with a power generation company to work on an isotope-producing unit that would fit the government’s low-enriched uranium specifications. (Because it isn’t weapons-grade, low-enriched uranium is considered less of a security risk.) The two companies haven’t yet picked a site for the reactor, which they hope would supply about half of the U.S. needs – about as much as Chalk River produced.
Nathan Cullen, the NDP natural resources critic, said yesterday that he can’t blame the Americans for taking their own path. But he lamented the loss of “brain power.” “If anyone could convince me that they are going to make American patients wait for critical cancer tests while they are feeding the Canadian supply, that would be a remarkable argument,” he said.
Geoff Regan, the Liberal natural resources critic, said Canada is abdicating its responsibility.
“The fact that the Prime Minister talked about getting out of the isotope business – of course, the U.S. is going to say we are going to get into this business,” said Mr. Regan, adding that the isotope industry has been lucrative for Canada.
Jean-Luc Urbain, president of the Canadian Society of Nuclear Medicine, said this country’s abysmal handling of the isotope crisis has left the United States little choice.
“There’s probably no better way to shoot yourself in the foot than to act as the Canadian government has been acting over the past 18 months,” Dr. Urbain said yesterday.
An expert panel set up by the federal government to explore ways of securing a long-term supply of medical isotopes plans to meet for the first time on July 16.
Saskatchewan is pursuing its own isotope and research reactor regardless of U.S. plans, said Iain Harry, vice-president of Crown sector initiatives for the Crown Investments Corporation of Saskatchewan.
“Saskatchewan’s proposal for a research reactor that will generate medical isotopes is not affected by what’s happening in the United States. Saskatchewan’s view is that Canada needs a robust supply of medical isotopes, and that would require more than one source,” he said.
The province intends to submit an expression of interest to Ottawa’s expert panel proposing a reactor that will be used for producing isotopes and research.
That pleases Thad Harroun, a biophysicist at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ont., who relies on Chalk River’s reactor for his neutron beam research. After AECL’s announcement this week that the NRU won’t open until the end of 2009, at least, he said he had to shift his research for now to a neutron beam reactor in Maryland.
If the NRU goes dark for good, he’ll go elsewhere.
