Edwin S. Lyman, a senior scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists in Washington, has renewed the call for the U.S. to start creatring their own isotope supply instead of relying on Canada. Photograph by: Wayne Cuddington , Ottawa Citizen

OTTAWA - The Canadian nuclear reactor shutdown that will cause a worldwide shortage of crucial medical isotopes is going to hit Canada's largest trading partner particularly hard and strengthens the case south of the border for the United States to move away from its dependence on Canada and to develop its own production capacity.

The aging National Research Universal (NRU) reactor in Chalk River, Ont., produces the majority of the world's supply of the critical isotopes that are used in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer and other serious illnesses. After the reactor was shut down because of a power outage last week, a leak was found in the 52-year-old reactor, and Atomic Energy of Canada Limited estimates it will take at least a month to repair the damage, but it could be up to a year and it is possible it will have to be shutdown.

With the U.S. depending on Chalk River for half of the isotopes it uses in 35,000 procedures each day, the supply interruption could have a significant impact on American patients, as well as those in Canada and some 78 other countries.

France, Belgium, South Africa, Canada and the Netherlands make up the global supply and as a result, the U.S. is dependent on imports for virtually all of the isotopes it uses in nuclear medicine.

“There's no option for us right now and it's really a critical problem,” said Dr. Robert Atcher, president of the Society of Nuclear Medicine.

The Chalk River shutdown adds fuel to the fire, and to the frustration of those in the U.S. who have been calling for a domestic plan so the country doesn't have to depend on foreign suppliers.

Atcher said one of the reasons the U.S. is so far behind on a domestic plan is because in 1996, Canada launched its MAPLE reactor project to replace the deteriorating NRU reactor.

“All of the activity that was going on in the U.S. stood down,” said Atcher, because the U.S. was assured that it would have a reliable supply from the new Canadian reactors. But the project was cancelled in May 2008 following a series of delays, cost overruns and major technical problems.

Atcher said the American nuclear science community's reaction to pulling the plug on the MAPLE reactors “is not printable.”

“We're basically held hostage now because we ceased to do any of our activity in terms of developing a domestic capability,” he said.

The supply shortage caused by a reactor shutdown is one reason for concern, but homeland security is another reason why the U.S. should be able to produce its own isotopes, Atcher said. If there was ever a security threat that forced the U.S. to close its borders, particularly to shipments of radioactive material, it would be cut off from its international isotope supply.

The last Chalk River closure in 2007 prompted the formation of a task force in the U.S. to explore its options. Its work is ongoing but even if the U.S. commits to securing a domestic supply of isotopes, it will be years before an American reactor is ready to go.

Atcher said a proposal from the University of Missouri is likely the best option at this point, but it needs at least $40 million and five years to get up and running.

With a new president in the White House, new people sitting on the critical government committees and a lengthening list of problems at Chalk River, a made-in-the-U.S. solution to the problem may be closer at hand.

“We've certainly gotten the attention of people in Congress and the department of energy about the problem here and so I think we have an audience that is much more interested in hearing what we have to say than what was true say, two years ago,” said Atcher.