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Canada has long been a leader in providing the world with the medical isotopes that help detect cancer and heart disease. If it wants to maintain that position—which is far from assured at this point—there must be quick action to plan for the future supply of isotopes beyond the aging and troubled Chalk River nuclear reactor.
The federal government must heed warnings from scientists, including a report in the journal Nature by Canadian nuclear medicine specialist Dr. Tom Ruth, that Canada risks throwing away its position as a leader in the technology of nuclear medicine if action is not taken.
The Chalk River nuclear reactor, which has had ongoing problems including a leak of radioactive water in the past week, and another aging reactor in Holland, produce about 85 per cent of the world’s medical isotopes. It is a stock that is highly vulnerable to supply problems because it cannot be stockpiled. As a result, recent shutdowns at Chalk River have wreaked havoc on the world’s supply, causing shortages and delays in treatment in Canada and around the world.
What can be done? There is a new proposal to use high-intensity light beams and accelerators, which would be safer, but it requires government support and leadership.
The federal government included money to repair Chalk River in its new federal budget. That is something that should be done, but to move nuclear medicine into the 21st century in Canada, there must also be money to build an accelerator. And time is of the essence.
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