According to the CBC: "Officials detected a heavy water leak at the base of the reactor vessel in a place where there is corrosion. The problem will keep the reactor out of service for a month, which is expected to lead to a shortage of the medical isotopes...."
The 53-year-old National Research Universal (NRU) reactor is one of only five reactors in the world with the capacity to produce isotopes for medical use and produces isotopes for over 20 million patients a year. Three other reactors are in Europe and one in South Africa. There are no large-scale medical isotopes reactors in the United States.
The reactor is the biggest single source in the world of cobalt-60. Cobalt-60, strontium-89 and other isotopes are used to treat many types of cancer. Isotopes are also used to diagnose potentially life-threatening conditions such as heart disease.
An interruption in the isotope supply will delay cancer treatments for many patients and will potentially change outcomes for people with a variety of cancers.
As the world's population ages and medical treatments become more sophisticated the demand for medical isotopes is increasing while the reactors that produce isotopes are aging with the patients.
No new plants have been built in years and there are no plans to build any new ones.
Update: The CBC now reports that Clinics are paying two to three times more for medical isotopes after a supplier abruptly hiked prices this month — shortly before the nuclear reactor that usually generates the bulk of the isotopes shut down temporarily.
Update 2: The Ottawa Citizen reports: "But two engineers -- one working at the Chalk River facility and one who spent years working there -- said they doubt the repairs will be made even within eight months and, in fact, may never be complete.
"A month to repair is a dream," said the engineer who works at the facility, and who asked for anonymity for fears he would be dismissed."
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