Free Republic

Japan Agency Admits Fuel Melt at Fukushima N-Plant Tokyo, April 18 (Jiji Press)--The industry ministry's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency on Monday acknowledged that nuclear fuel rods have melted at the No. 1 to No. 3 reactors of the crippled nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan. The agency reported the assessment to the day's meeting of the government's Nuclear Safety Commission. This was the agency's first official recognition of core melt accidents at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s <9501> Fukushima No. 1 plant, which was knocked out by the March 11 massive earthquake and tsunami. On March 12, officials...

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....

WASHINGTON — A global shortage of a radioactive drug crucial to tests for cardiac disease, cancer and kidney function in children is emerging because two aging nuclear reactors that provide most of the world’s supply are shut for repairs. The 51-year-old reactor in Ontario, Canada, that produces most of this drug, a radioisotope, has been shut since May 14 because of safety problems, and it will stay shut through the end of the year, at least. Some experts fear it will never reopen. The isotope, technetium-99m, is used in more than 40,000 medical procedures a day in the United States....