Canadian and U.S. scientists are promoting a possible alternative to using a highly enriched uranium-fueled reactor in Ontario to produce medical isotopes, the Canwest News Service reported today (see GSN, Oct. 7).
"Photo-fission" accelerators could replace the aging reactor at Chalk River, which produces roughly half of the world's supply of isotopes used for nuclear medicine, according to a panel of 24 top U.S. and Canadian physicists and nuclear medicine experts. It would take only six of the $40 million accelerators to ensure that North America has its needed supply of material, according to a report to be issued today.
With the new technology, Canada would also no longer have to import weapon-grade uranium from the United States for its isotope production, the report says. The researchers called for "strong and focused" study of the light-beam-producing accelerators to "support proof-of-principle demonstrations."
Both the Chalk River site and another major isotope-producing reactor in the Netherlands have experienced shutdowns over the last year. The Petten reactor is not scheduled to resume operations until February (Margaret Munro, Canwest News Service/National Post, Nov. 17).