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March 11, 2010
Health Canada Authorizes New Source of Medical Isotopes
Health Canada has authorized Covidien of Hazelwood, Missouri, to use Molybdenum 99 (Moly-99) produced by the Maria Reactor in Poland to make Tc-99m for diagnostic imaging in Canadian health care facilities. Health Canada's approval means that the Moly-99 produced by the Maria reactor is safe and effective for use by Canadian health care providers. read more
February 23, 2010
COVIDIEN ANNOUNCES NEW SOURCE OF VITAL MEDICAL ISOTOPES - February 23, 2010
Covidien and the Institute of Atomic Energy in Poland (IAE POLATOM) held a press conference on February 17 in Warsaw, Poland, announcing an agreement to augment and further diversify Covidien’s supply of Molybdenum 99 (Mo 99) to produce the medical isotope Technetium 99m (Tc 99m). read more
February 12, 2010
The isotope supply situation is about to get worse
(Gazette, Winnipeg Free Press, Feb. 10: Globe and Mail, Feb. 8)
The isotope supply situation is about to get worse. The Chalk River nuclear reactor has been out of commission since May 2009 to fix a leak. Now the Petten reactor in the Netherlands will shut down next Friday for repairs. The two reactors account for about 60 per cent of the global production of medical isotopes for nuclear medicine. This has a particular impact on cancer diagnoses. Hospitals are looking far afield for replacement supply. The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, for example, has been scouting out Argentina as a possible source. An editorial in the Montreal Gazette Wednesday said nuclear medicine specialists and the government in Quebec should be congratulated for anticipating the problem and ensuring 30 per cent of cancer patients can now be diagnosed with Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scans. The Chalk River facility could be back on line in April, all going well with repairs.
February 10, 2010
Liberals seek plan to handle isotope shortage
(Gazette, Winnipeg Free Press, Feb. 10: Globe and Mail, Feb. 8)
OTTAWA - The troubled Chalk River nuclear reactor may not be up and running until April, further delaying the return to a full supply of isotopes for vital medical tests.
As the looming shutdown of a European reactor threatens to create shortages of the material used to diagnose life-threatening illnesses, the Opposition is pushing Ottawa to develop plans to ensure the continued supply of medical isotopes.
Liberal MPs sent a letter yesterday to Natural Resources Minister Christian Paradis and Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq, expressing "growing concern" that there is no contingency plan to deal with the shutdown of the Petten reactor in the Netherlands, which will occur while the NRU reactor at Chalk River, Ont., remains out of service.
The NRU has been off-line for repairs since last May and will not run again until April. The Dutch reactor will be shut down for several months starting Feb. 19. When both units are functioning, they produce more than 60 per cent of the world's medical isotopes.
... read more
January 11, 2010
Chalk River medical isotope reactor may be down longer than expected
The Canadian Press - ONLINE EDITION
OTTAWA - The troubled Chalk River nuclear reactor may not be up and running until April, further delaying the return to a full supply of isotopes for vital medical tests.
Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. says it had hoped to have repairs done by March, but work is moving more slowly than expected. It says if there are more "challenges," the repair will be delayed. Even after the work is completed, it's a complex, 19-stage process to get the Ontario reactor up and running at full power. The first isotopes will be ready 10 days after the system starts up. Before a pin-point radioactive water leak was discovered last May, the reactor had been producing about a third of the world's supply of medical isotopes. The isotopes are vital in diagnosing some cancers and heart problems. Since the 52-year-old Chalk River system closed, other reactors around the world have had to pick up the slack. One of those fill-in reactors is slated to shut down for repairs in February, leaving doctors worried about finding isotopes. Provinces are also concerned about extra costs tied to pricier, imported isotopes. Quebec Health Minister Yves Bolduc has estimated the crisis has so far cost his province $10 million. The provinces want the federal government to foot the bill, but Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq hasn't committed herself to compensation. ... read more
August 04, 2009
Canadian province releases proposal on nuclear reactor
CBC News
MDS Nordion has submitted a proposal to a Canadian government panel on medical isotope and technetium-99m generator production, suggesting that its Multipurpose Applied Physics Lattice Experiment (MAPLE) medical isotope reactor project could become a reality through the adoption of new computer codes. ... read more
August 03, 2009
MDS urges computer code approval to activate MAPLE
The government of Saskatchewan Tuesday released its proposal for a Saskatoon-based nuclear reactor with a potential price tag of $500 million to $750 million.
The facility, which could open in 2016, would produce medical-grade isotopes and be used in scientific research. ... read more
July 23, 2009
Isotope costs surge as supply dwindles
Karen Howlett Toronto — From Thursday's Globe and Mail Last updated on Thursday, Jul. 23, 2009 09:09AM EDT
Suppliers of medical isotopes are dramatically hiking their prices amid a worldwide shortage of a tool used to detect cancer and heart illnesses, resulting in higher costs for cash-strapped hospitals and longer waiting times for patients.
The cost of each bone scan performed in Canadian hospitals has soared as much as 50 per cent, to $30, since May, when a major supplier began adding surcharges on medical isotopes.
Costs are set to escalate again when the same supplier, Dublin-based health-care giant Covidien, raises its prices another 40 per cent, effective Aug. 1. ... read more
July 09, 2009
Maintenance Stop High Flux Reactor Petten
The annual summer stop of the High Flux Reactor in Petten, during which regular preventative maintenance, testing and inspection is performed; is planned for the period 18 July to 18 August 2009 inclusive. As in 2006, 2007 and 2008, an inspection of the cooling water pipework will be part of the programme. The inspection concentrates upon the analysis of 4 locations in the pipework where localized deformations are known and where a small bubble stream was observed in 2008. ... read more
May 30, 2009
99Mo supply - the times they are a-changing
Recently there has been a phenomenal growth in clinical PET using 18FDG as well as a resurgence of interest in imaging with 123I. However, 99mTc still remains the most popular radionuclide; approximately 80% of all the world’s nuclear medicine procedures are carried out using 99mTc. The supply of its parent radionuclide (99Mo) relies on access to nuclear research reactors and nuclear fission radiochemical processing. During the last 18 months, there have been supply problems with both the reactors and radiochemistry operations; therefore, it is timely to re-visit this issue and examine the options that exist for 99Mo supply in Europe.
In a 1995 editorial in this journal on the availability of suitable reactors, I wrote that “the situation in North America was dire” and “whereas Europe was blessed with several good isotope-producing reactors, the situation in Europe was far from secure”. It is with regret that I can only report that the situation has deteriorated considerably since that time. ...read more
March 10, 2009
Production of 99Mo for Nuclear Medicine by 100Mo(n,2n)99Mo
We have proposed a new route to produce 99Mo for nuclear medicine by the 100Mo(n,2n)99Mo reaction. The reaction cross section is known to be ∼1.5 b in the neutron energy, En, range from 12 to 17 MeV: 10-times larger than the thermal-neutron capture cross section of 98Mo. By irradiating an enriched 100Mo target for 198 h with neutrons of ∼1013 n/(cm2 s) at En∼14 MeV, one can produce 79 GBq/g specific activity of 99Mo. Since the cross sections for 100Mo(n, p)100Nb, 100Mo(n,n p)99Nb and 100Mo(n,α)97Zr at 12≤En≤17 MeV are small, less than a few mb, radioactive waste during and/or after chemical processing of 99Mo would not be a serious problem. The proposed route could bring a major breakthrough in the solution of ensuring a constant and reliable supply of 99Mo without using highly enriched 235U. ©2009 The Physical Society of Japan ...read more
February 25, 2009
B&W taps DOE official to head isotope program
Babcock & Wilcox has picked Daniel E. Glenn, a Department of Energy official, to lead research and development for its medical-isotope initiative, which might lead to the establishment of an isotope-production facility in Lynchburg, Va., within a few years. The initiative will employ B&W's patented reactor that would use low-enriched uranium to produce molybdenum-99. ... read more
February 12, 2009 -
NRG brings the High Flux Reactor back into operation
Today, the Dutch Council of Ministers have given permission to allow the restart of the High Flux Reactor in Petten with additional safety related measures in place, this is for the period till March 2010. NRG will now complete the normal final preparations for a reactor start, whereby safe operation is assured and will then start up the reactor. ... read more
February 04, 2009
URGENT UPDATE ON THE EUROPEAN SITUATION
The production of Tc-99m for medical imaging (daughter isotope of the Mo-99 produced by irradiation of the U-235 targets in research reactors).
In Europe there are 2 producers of Mo-99: COVIDIEN in Petten (NL) and IRE in Fleurus (B). IRE has irradiation positions in the following reactors: HFR (NL), OSIRIS (F) and BR2 (B) COVIDIEN has irradiation positions in HFR (NL) and BR2 (B). The combined Mo-99 output from COVIDIEN + IRE is about 40 to 45 % of the worldwide demand (total 27 million of Tc-99m imaging procedures per year worldwide). The combined Mo-99 output from COVIDIEN + IRE represents more than 90 % of the European demand (about 8 million procedures per year). ... read more
January 26, 2009
B&W strikes isotopes deal with health care firm
Babcock & Wilcox is entering a venture with a health care products company to produce an important medical isotope that currently is not made in the U.S. In this venture, B&W’s Technical Services Group would build and operate a facility with small nuclear reactors that pro-duce radioactive isotopes. ... read more
January 23, 2009
NRG requests permission to restart the High Flux Reactor, Petten
This week NRG has requested permission from the relevant authorities to restart the High Flux Rector in Petten. Following a large maintenance and inspection program in August 2008, the reactor did not start because a small gas bubble stream was identified in the primary cooling water system. . ... read more
Publications
- Industrial Constraints in the Selection of Radionuclides and the Development of New Radiopharmaceuticals.
During the past twenty years, the number of new radiolabeled molecules that have been published weekly in specialized nuclear medicine journals is quite amazing. On the other hand, one can only be astonished when it is compared to the number of new radiopharmaceuticals that came on the market during the same period. A good science is not sufficient to transform a molecule in a marketed drug. The budget required to demonstrate with a larger number of patients the value of the molecule linked to a limited market potential discourages investors to enter in this area. In fact, there are a series of other limitations and constraints that have to be taken into account before deciding to start clinical trials. This paper tries to identify all the difficulties that are encountered by radiopharmaceutical industries. ... read more
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