Posted on 08/16/2009 6:20:51 PM PDT by neverdem
Global production of the feedstock for the leading medical-imaging isotope is low and erratic, putting health care in jeopardy.
Within the next two weeks, the vast majority of radioactive-imaging medical tests could be delayed or replaced by less desirable procedures. The reason: temporary shutdowns of Canadian and Dutch reactors that together normally provide some 70 percent of the world’s supplies of the isotope molybdenum-99 and at least 80 percent of North American supplies.
Each week, U.S. doctors prescribe some 300,000 medical-imaging tests that rely on technetium-99m, a radioactive isotope produced from molybdenum-99. About half of those tests measure heart function. Some map the spread of cancer. Others gauge the toxicity of cancer drugs on the circulatory system.
Neither the feedstock isotope nor the imaging isotope can be stockpiled because of their short radioactive half-lives (66 hours for molybdenum-99 and six hours for technetium-99m). New sources of molybdenum must be supplied to hospitals and imaging centers at least every two weeks.
“Right now, we’re managing [with the diminished supply], but just barely,” says Michael Graham, a nuclear medicine physician at the University of Iowa in Iowa City and president of the Society of Nuclear Medicine. “I’m concerned things are going to get worse by the end of this month.”
Indeed, “it’s predicted that in a week or 10 days, [U.S. supplies] could fall to perhaps 15 to 20 percent of our demand,” says Jeffrey Norenberg, director of radiopharmaceutical sciences at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque and executive director of the National Association of Nuclear Pharmacies...
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencenews.org ...
I read this, but I must have missed where they said WHY the Dutch and Canadian reactors were temporarily shut down.
As a former Nuclear Medicine Technologist, I saw this one coming for a long, long time.
Crap. A slow motion train wreck.
They are old, worn out, outdated, costly to run and overworked to death. At least last time years ago I poked my head in to look at it, that is what it was.
These materials are traditionally provided by special purpose research reactors that are not used as sources of power. What keeps power reactors from being fitted with similar facilities. Kill two birds with one stone.
I actually have heard for years they were going to close the one on Canada down. (Again, I could be wrong on this because it has been a while)
I think it would require some drastic changes to the basic plumbing if I recall correctly.
They all seem to get on the bandwagon to manufacture a shortage. How about the citizens to not pay their taxes. Just remember most all of this shortage/ supply is contrived.
The sole reactor that Canada has sprang an unpatchable leak of a heavy water vessel a couple of months ago. So the whole thing had to be taken apart to furnish a new vessel. It is not expected to be operating again till around December this year.
http://www.medicalisotopes.org/faq.html
“Medical isotopes are made in either accelerators or nuclear reactors. Today, the United States imports about 90% of the medical isotopes used in hospitals and clinics. Our supply of medical isotopes is at risk to global conditions and the internal conditions of other countries.”
“The United States has a number of small active providers of a few isotopes suitable for medical use. Most sources are small commercial accelerators or university research nuclear reactors such as the Missouri University Research Reactor. Other possibilities are the creation or use of reactors and accelerators which can produce the quantities and types to fully support all needs.”
China could probably put one up in a few months if it wanted to.
I have heard this is the problem with our petroleum refineries in the US as well. They are operating so close to capacity and for such long periods of time that they can’t come offline to do certain kinds of non-routine maintenance that need doing.
http://article.wn.com/view/2009/07/14/Isotope_supply_uncertain_during_Dutch_shutdown/
Dutch reactor was leaking.
Bush’s Fault!!!!
Must have broken that Canadain reactor!!!!
This one isn’t contrived, it is real. Everyone over the years kept tossing the ball to someone else. And here we are.
Not good for patients, but they will still be cared for.
So where is the Dutch boy to stick his finger in it?
For the Canadian one at least, politics has kept it a perpetual hot potato.
If some global sense prevailed (hello, U.N., here’s your chance to coordinate something useful for a change) planned downtimes for these units would be deliberately staggered well before they could be knocked out of service for months.
Gee, an opportunity for Dims!! History says the occasion will not be risen to. After all, Ob is into CUTS, not maintenance.
Hopefully, we can substitute goofballium-59 and liberalinium-98. Then we’ll never run low.
I don’t even trust the Chinese with manufacturing children’s toys...
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