World shortage of Medical Isotopes imminent.
An interesting article on the imminent shortage of medical isotopes, via the canadians.
“Nuclear medicine specialists say the crunch for patients is coming after it was announced yesterday that the Canadian reactor responsible for one-third of the world’s medical isotopes will be shut down for at least three months.
The 51-year-old NRU unit at Chalk River, Ont., will be offline though July when the reactor in the Netherlands, which produces another third of the world’s supply, is scheduled to shut down for a month of maintenance.
“That would be devastating,” said Robert Atcher, the president of the international Society of Nuclear Medicine, during a telephone interview yesterday from his office in New Mexico. “There is no way to make up for the loss of those two reactors at the same time.” ”
