WORLD BRIEFING / CANADA
Canadian officials have again shut down a nuclear reactor that produces about half the world’s radioactive isotopes used to diagnose cancer and heart patients through medical imaging.
Patients seeking such tests may have a longer wait as hospitals try to conserve a scarce supply of isotopes, doctors say.
The latest shutdown of an Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. nuclear reactor at Chalk River, Ontario, is expected to last about a month as technicians repair a leak of heavy water. AECL said the reactor was shut down last Thursday after a power outage. The leak was discovered shortly after that.
The 52-year-old reactor was ordered closed by Canada’s nuclear regulator in 2007 until mandated safety upgrades had been completed. The nearly monthlong shutdown sparked a critical global shortage of medical isotopes and ended only when Canada’s Parliament voted to bypass the order.
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