They can’t be stockpiled, producers are shutting down, and cancer patients need them. Isotopes, used in the detection and evaluation of cancer, heart and brain disorders could soon be in short supply. Of three main reactors in the world, only one will continue to function at the end of this week.

 
The upcoming closure of a Dutch nuclear reactor for routine maintenance has sparked fear and concern in Canada, where there is already a shortage of isotopes following the shut down of a reactor in Ontario.

“It's a real disaster. It's a national disaster. It's an international disaster”, said Dr. Jean-Luc Urbain head of the Canadian Association of Nuclear Medicine. The Chalk River, Ontario reactor supplied a third of the world’s radioactive isotopes.

There were limited options available to the Canadian medical community following the shut down of the Ontario nuclear reactor; namely South Africa and the Netherlands. However, as The Netherlands prepares to shut down its reactor, medical experts in Canada grow increasingly worried.

“I don't know how we're going to go through the summer, to tell you the truth, particularly since the reactor in Holland is also going to shut down for more than a month” said Urbain.

 
Simply too old
The reactor in Ontario was shut down in mid-May after it was found to be leaking radioactive water. Initially, the reactor was meant to be closed for a month, now three months down the road a reopening is not in sight.

Hugh MacDiarmid president of Atomic of Energy Canada Limited explains, “We had not at that time, made the decision to remove the fuel and the water from the reactor. We did not know fully the extent of the repair that would be required.”

The problems with the Chalk River nuclear reactor are not new. Elizabeth May, head of the Green Party, notes the lack of government response. “We're back where we started with a reactor that doesn't work. With hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayers dollars squandered...It's simply too old."

 
Patients paying the price
Canadian Parliamentary minister for Atomic Energy, Lisa Rait, has brought down further criticism on the government because of her response to the crisis; she was recorded describing the crisis as sexy and easy to solve with money.

Jack Layton, leader of the New Democratic Party, reacts. “She said its about money, but it's the patients that are paying the price…Does the minister realize that she no longer has the confidence of the medical experts or Canadians?”

Although plans have been made for a Belgian reactor to replace the Dutch one while it undergoes maintenance, the Chalk River reactor remains in disrepair. Medical experts continue to weigh the possible impact, as hospitals and laboratories in the US and Canada are already feeling the effects.

With more than one crisis at its back, many are worried hospitals and labs will not hedge their bets on Chalk River when, and if, it resumes functioning.

Listen to a report by Dan Karpenchuk in Canada