McMaster gets cash for isotope production
May 30, 2009
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Joanna Smith
OTTAWA BUREAU
OTTAWA–Canada signalled its intention to stay in the medical isotopes business yesterday by pouring millions of dollars into a university reactor that could start pumping out the particles that are in short supply around the world.
McMaster University is getting $22 million in infrastructure funding from the Ontario and federal governments that will, in part, go toward a plan to start producing medical isotopes crucial to diagnostic tests used to detect cancer and heart ailments. The McMaster reactor is the only Canadian one outside of Chalk River, Ont., capable of producing the isotopes.
Federal Industry Minister Tony Clement suggested it could eventually replace the troubled National Research Universal reactor at Chalk River, which is currently responsible for half the North American supply of molybdenum-99, which decays into the isotope needed for 85 per cent of nuclear medicine procedures.
Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. expects the 52-year-old Chalk River reactor to be out of service for three months after discovering a heavy water leak two weeks ago.
"Certainly it is part of McMaster's plans to be a place of resiliency for the production of radioisotopes in Canada for the future. They see themselves as part of the solution. I see them as part of the solution," Clement told reporters in Hamilton, according to a transcript provided by his spokesperson.
The Chalk River reactor is increasingly unreliable and the federal government scrapped the original plan to replace it with two MAPLE reactors last year due to design flaws and significant cost overruns.
Meanwhile, federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq downplayed the seriousness of the looming shortage of medical isotopes sparked by the shutdown. "It's not a crisis. There are many tests that can be completed using other options."
Dawn-Marie King, clinical operations director for medical imaging at University Health Network, Mount Sinai and Women's College Hospital, said there have been no cancellations yet.
Toronto Star
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