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TORONTO - Lisa Raitt, the Minister of Natural Resources, tried yesterday to assuage public fears that Canada is in the throes of a grave medical crisis, saying world isotope experts are working on a solution to medical isotope shortage and getting the Chalk River, Ont., facility up and running again is a top priority. "We do have a shortage of medical isotopes. The province, the government and the medical community have been working together to ensure those who really need the medical isotopes will get medical isotopes," she said. "It's not like we have no isotopes. This week we had 75% of our normal supply."

An expert panel is recommending that the federal government build a new nuclear reactor to produce medical isotopes and guarantee an adequate supply for the country. The Expert Review Panel On Medical Isotope Production says the best way to keep isotopes stocked is to build a new research reactor to replace the downed unit at Chalk River, Ont. It makes the recommendation in a report to Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt, which the government received Monday and released Thursday. "We recommend that the government expeditiously engage in the replacement of the (National Research Universal) reactor as we believe a multipurpose research reactor represents the best primary option to create a sustainable source of (the isotope molybdenum 99), recognizing that the reactor's other missions would also play a role in justifying the costs," the report says.

An expert panel is recommending that the federal government build a new nuclear reactor to produce medical isotopes and guarantee an adequate supply for the country. The Expert Review Panel On Medical Isotope Production says the best way to keep isotopes stocked is to build a new research reactor to replace the downed unit at Chalk River, Ont. It makes the recommendation in a report to Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt, which the government received Monday and released Thursday. "We recommend that the government expeditiously engage in the replacement of the (National Research Universal) reactor as we believe a multipurpose research reactor represents the best primary option to create a sustainable source of (the isotope molybdenum 99), recognizing that the reactor's other missions would also play a role in justifying the costs," the report says.

"Louisiana Energy Services and International Isotopes Inc. have agreed International Isotopes will provide uranium deconversion services for LES' National Enrichment Facility, which will produce enriched uranium for commercial nuclear power plants. The $3 billion enrichment facility also will produce tons of depleted uranium tails each year, which Idaho Falls, Idaho-based International Isotopes will use in a uranium deconversion and fluorine extraction processing facility. The contract allows International Isotopes to take no more than 25 percent of the depleted uranium tails. LES does not consider them waste and plans to recycle much of the material in the future for more enriched uranium. International Isotopes expects to break ground next year west of Hobbs. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is reviewing the Idaho company's plan."

As doctors and their patients struggle with a growing shortage of the medical isotopes used to treat cancer and other diseases, the federal government is coming under renewed pressure to fire up two nuclear reactors that were to be the backups to the rusting and leaky Chalk River, Ont., reactor where most of those isotopes are produced. MDSNordion, the Ottawa company that takes the isotopes produced by Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. at its 52-year-old National Research Universal reactor and wholesales them to pharmaceutical companies, urged the government on Monday to re-activate the NRU's backup plan -- a proposal that was mothballed last spring by AECL with the federal government's approval.

Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt named four members of an expert panel Friday, whom the federal government has asked to find a way for Canada to secure a stable, long-term supply of medical isotopes, used to help diagnose and treat more than two million patients a year. The government also invited formal "expressions of interest" from potential isotope suppliers. The operators of research reactors and particle accelerator facilities at McMaster University in Hamilton and at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver are among a handful of Canadian organizations expected to signal their interest.

International Isotopes Inc. has selected a site in Lea County, New Mexico, for the construction of International Isotopes' depleted uranium de-conversion and fluorine extraction processing facility. According to a release, International Isotopes had narrowed its site selection to Eastern Idaho, Andrews County, Texas, and Lea County, New Mexico. The New Mexico location is about 15 miles west of Hobbs, NM. INIS announced its plans to construct the de-conversion facility in 2008 and has since been working on site selection, plant design, and licensing.

Investigation into why Darlington workers were filling wrong tank CLARINGTON -- Workers at the Darlington nuclear station filled the wrong tank with a cocktail of water and a radioactive isotope Monday, spilling more than 200,000 litres into Lake Ontario. Ontario Power Generation is investigating how the accident happened and officials say hourly tests of the lake water show that the level of tritium - the radioactive isotope of hydrogen - poses no harm to nearby residents.

Investigation into why Darlington workers were filling wrong tank CLARINGTON -- Workers at the Darlington nuclear station filled the wrong tank with a cocktail of water and a radioactive isotope Monday, spilling more than 200,000 litres into Lake Ontario. Ontario Power Generation is investigating how the accident happened and officials say hourly tests of the lake water show that the level of tritium - the radioactive isotope of hydrogen - poses no harm to nearby residents.

Canada's top doctor of nuclear medicine has slammed the Expert Review Panel on Medical Isotope Production for wasting months to deliver a near useless report on how to replace the broken nuclear reactor at Chalk River. The panel was created in the spring by Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt to find alternative supplies of medical isotopes used in cancer and heart scans, after the NRU reactor went down for extended repairs. "The report is comprehensive but doesn't bring anything new to the table. Everything we knew already," said Jean-Luc Urbain, president of the Canadian Society of Nuclear Medicine. The key recommendation was to build a new reactor for between $500 million and $1.2 billion. The report all but dismissed the prospect of revisiting the Maple I and II reactors, which were supposed to replace the NRU reactor but ran $700 million over budget before being abandoned.

Canada's top doctor of nuclear medicine has slammed the Expert Review Panel on Medical Isotope Production for wasting months to deliver a near useless report on how to replace the broken nuclear reactor at Chalk River. The panel was created in the spring by Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt to find alternative supplies of medical isotopes used in cancer and heart scans, after the NRU reactor went down for extended repairs. "The report is comprehensive but doesn't bring anything new to the table. Everything we knew already," said Jean-Luc Urbain, president of the Canadian Society of Nuclear Medicine. The key recommendation was to build a new reactor for between $500 million and $1.2 billion. The report all but dismissed the prospect of revisiting the Maple I and II reactors, which were supposed to replace the NRU reactor but ran $700 million over budget before being abandoned.

"Notice of Intent To Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for the Proposed International Isotopes Uranium Processing Facility AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission. ACTION: Notice of Intent. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMARY: International Isotopes Fluorine Products, Inc. (IIFP), a wholly owned subsidiary of International Isotopes, Inc. (INIS), submitted a license application, which included an Environmental Report (ER) on December 30, 2009, that proposes the construction, operation, and decommissioning of a fluorine extraction and depleted uranium de- conversion facility to be located near Hobbs in Lea County, New Mexico. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and its regulations in 10 Code of Federal Regulations Part 51, announces its intent to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) evaluating this proposed action. The EIS will examine the potential environmental impacts of the proposed INIS facility. DATES: NRC invites public comments on the appropriate scope of issues to be considered in the EIS. The public scoping process required by NEPA begins with publication of this Notice of Intent. Written comments submitted by mail should be postmarked by no later than August 30, 2010 to ensure consideration. Comments mailed after that date will be considered to the extent practical. "

A new face of nuclear medicine; Other materials may be able to take the place of isotopes (SP, July 4). These "other materials" are also radioisotopes, not substitutes for them. The difference is that they are produced in cyclotrons rather than in nuclear reactors. In fact, the first technetium-99m (the favoured isotope mentioned) was produced in a cyclotron about 12 years before the first reactor was built.

Call it a case of having too many medical eggs in too few baskets. Just over a year ago, in December 2007, a nuclear reactor in Chalk River was in the news because of maintenance issues. The reactor had been shut down for repairs, and Canada's nuclear regulatory agency, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, would not allow it to restart until safety improvements were made. Problem was, the reactor produced most of the world's medical isotopes - used to test for cancer, heart problems and bone ailments. Faced with a massive diagnostics problem, the federal government passed legislation that allowed the reactor to be restarted, despite the regulatory body's objections. The 50-year-old reactor is crucial to the world supply of medical isotopes. Even though it was supposed to be decommissioned in 2005, it and another reactor in Petten, Netherlands, produce close to 85 per cent of the world's medical isotopes, through a process that involves the nuclear decay of molybdenum-99.

On a day when Parliament passed a bill to restart the Chalk River nuclear reactor, the Harper government came under fire for allowing the reactor to shut down in the first place, causing a global shortage of medical isotopes used to diagnose cancer. Late yesterday, the Senate passed an emergency bill that would restart the reactor for 120 days so that Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. (AECL) can resume producing supplies of the highly sought isotopes. Health Minister Tony Clement said this means the reactor will be producing isotopes in roughly a week.

Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt is defending her government's decision to shelve the two Maple reactors, arguing that they wouldn't have prevented the global isotope crisis because they simply couldn't be brought online. "The reality is that the Maples would not have solved this problem today," she said in an interview with The Globe and Mail Thursday. But she said an expert panel on isotope alternatives will take a second look at the mothballed reactors because restarting the Maples is part of at least one of the 22 proposals submitted to the panel - that of medical technology company MDS Nordion, which is suing AECL over the decision not to bring the two reactors online. Medical isotopes are used in diagnostic tests.

Wants to build research reactor within three years * Final decision could come as soon as August TORONTO, June 20 (Reuters) - The leader of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan is seeking to build a nuclear reactor and transform his province into a producer of medical isotopes and atomic research hub, the Globe and Mail reported on Saturday. Medical isotopes have become political issue in Canada after the country's Chalk River reactor in Ontario, which normally produces about one-third of world supply, was shut down in May for at least three months because it was leaking a small amount of heavy water.

Many Canadians are not happy about the stoppage of isotope production at the Chalk River nuclear facility. Residents of Ottawa are likely to be especially concerned, and not just because we too need isotopes for medical imaging. Isotope production was stopped because the National Research Universal reactor is falling apart. That puts the national capital region, situated as it is downriver and downwind from Chalk River, in a precarious spot. Crumbling, unreliable reactors are scary things, at least in the public eye.

The beginnings of the Manhattan Project can be traced to early science and technology research into uranium-238 conducted at the University of California, Berkeley. U-238 is the most common radioactive element, making up about 99 percent of the Earth's supply of uranium. Uranium-238 does not sustain a fission chain reaction, however, and must be modified into an isotope that can. It can be bombarded in a nuclear reactor to make U-235, the fuel used for the Hiroshima bomb. That isotope was made and separated at labs in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

The beginnings of the Manhattan Project can be traced to early science and technology research into uranium-238 conducted at the University of California, Berkeley. U-238 is the most common radioactive element, making up about 99 percent of the Earth's supply of uranium. Uranium-238 does not sustain a fission chain reaction, however, and must be modified into an isotope that can. It can be bombarded in a nuclear reactor to make U-235, the fuel used for the Hiroshima bomb. That isotope was made and separated at labs in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

Tritium is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen, which has one proton and two neutrons, where a normal atom of the element would have one proton and no neutrons. It is produced naturally when hydrogen is bombarded by cosmic rays, and is also a by-product of reactions that drive nuclear power plants. Tritium atoms almost invariably bind to oxygen atoms, to create tritiated water. The isotope is a weak source of radiation, emitting low-energy beta particles that cannot penetrate the skin, and are therefore not dangerous outside the body. If inhaled or swallowed, however, the beta particles present a radiation hazard. As with all poisons, the risk depends on the dose.Trace levels of tritium are present naturally in all water supplies and are not harmful. Higher exposures, however, may cause cancer, and have also been linked to birth defects in the children of people who are exposed.

Tritium is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen, which has one proton and two neutrons, where a normal atom of the element would have one proton and no neutrons. It is produced naturally when hydrogen is bombarded by cosmic rays, and is also a by-product of reactions that drive nuclear power plants. Tritium atoms almost invariably bind to oxygen atoms, to create tritiated water. The isotope is a weak source of radiation, emitting low-energy beta particles that cannot penetrate the skin, and are therefore not dangerous outside the body. If inhaled or swallowed, however, the beta particles present a radiation hazard. As with all poisons, the risk depends on the dose.Trace levels of tritium are present naturally in all water supplies and are not harmful. Higher exposures, however, may cause cancer, and have also been linked to birth defects in the children of people who are exposed.

"The search for the source of the radioactive isotope tritium that seeped into groundwater at the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant has led to the discovery of the isotope in a second monitoring well. An e-mail from Rob Williams, spokesman for Entergy Vermont Yankee, said the search team "received sampling results that showed an elevated level of 9,540 picocuries per liter in a second tritium monitoring well adjacent to the first well. A second confirmatory sample has been drawn from that well and is being analyzed." "

"Canada's nuclear watchdog is fast-tracking a request for a hearing to consider reopening the country's aging medical isotope-producing reactor. Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. made a request Friday for a formal hearing in hopes of restarting medical isotope production at the Ontario plant by mid-summer. The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission has not yet scheduled a hearing, which is expected to take one day, but it said the date would be announced quickly and normal hearing rules will be tossed aside to deal with what it calls a priority case. "

Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall is moving to build a nuclear reactor and transform his province into a producer of medical isotopes - and a player in atomic research - to step into the gap left by the failure of the Chalk River reactor. Mr. Wall ran on a platform that included a pledge to build up a full-fledged nuclear industry in Saskatchewan, which already produces nearly a quarter of the world's uranium, but does little beyond extract the ore.