Federal ministers are calling for a nuclear laboratory to resume production of a vital material used for medical tests, saying they are worried about the impact on the health of Canadians.
The laboratory produces radioisotopes, a substance that can be injected into patients to allow nuclear imaging equipment to produce scans of the body to help diagnose diseases such as cancer, heart disease, and bone ailments.
"We are very concerned about the impacts on the health of Canadians of the extended outage," says a letter released Monday by Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn and Health Minister Tony Clement and addressed to the Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL).
"We take this situation very seriously."
The AECL operates the Chalk River Nuclear Laboratory in Chalk River, Ont.
The National Research Universal (NRU) reactor was closed earlier this month for repairs, which have taken longer than expected. Several new safety standards must be met before it can reopen, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) has said.
The publicly owned reactor is responsible for producing two-thirds of the world's medical isotopes and its extended closure has caused widespread shortages.
"Many institutions have very limited supplies and some centres are focusing on emergency patients only," the letter to the AECL says.
Other implications include delays in diagnosis and therapy, focus on emergency and limited elective surgeries and increased wait times for diagnostic procedures, the ministers wrote.
"A longer-term shortage (two weeks or longer) will have severe health consequences in many provinces."
Improved safety standards
The plant was originally closed on Nov. 18 for regular repairs and to install new safety equipment in order to meet improved safety standards outlined by the CNSC in 2006.
The CNSC said the upgrades were designed to provide systems that would prevent accidents, or limit problems following an accident. The upgrades may not be completed until the new year.
A letter to the CNSC urged the independent regulator to let the NRU restart production immediately.
"It is imperative for you . . . to ensure that the health and safety of all Canadians is taken into account in the decisions as to when to re-start the NRU," said the letter to Linda Keen, president of the CNSC.
"Re-starting the NRU in its current condition would entail no reduction in safety as compared to when it was operating before this shutdown," the letter continued.
In response to the letter, the CNSC said it would evaluate the reactor's current safety levels.
The delay has caused widespread shortages resulting in cancellation and postponement of medical examinations around the world.
The Canadian Society of Nuclear Medicine estimates that nearly 50,000 Canadians and three times as many Americans will be forced to postpone treatments each month production is halted.
More than 20 million patients in North America, most of them with cancer or heart disease, are treated using nuclear medicine every year.
Ontario has been forced to put off nearly 1,000 patients a day -- about half of its normal capacity.
Isotope shortage "blindsided" doctors
Dr. Chris O'Brien, president of the Ontario Association of Nuclear Medicine, said they were "blindsided" by the shortage.
He told CTV's Mike Duffy Live that his association was told on Nov. 27 -- nine days after the plant was closed -- that they would not be sent any medical isotopes.
"We had no idea, no idea to prepare or even anticipate how we could structure our patient load during this time," O'Brien told CTV's Mike Duffy Live on Monday.
O'Brien said the reactor was shut because it did not meet recently upgraded safety requirements and not because there was any danger to public safety.
"We were caught in a regulatory fiasco," he said.
In the letter sent to the AECL, the ministers expressed concern over how the reactor was allowed to fall below operating standards.
"The health of Canadians is being put at significant risk. We are asking you to find an urgent path forward to re-start the NRU reactor safely," the letter says.
Liberal MP Michael Ignatieff for Etobicoke-Lakeshore said the Conservatives "turned a problem into a crisis" by being slow to act.
"We counted 18 days between the shutdown on November 20th and action by the minister," Ignatieff told CTV's Mike Duffy Live.
"The government has been incredibly slow to grasp the public health crisis that this nuclear crisis has started," he said.
Delay was avoidable
Last week, a former employee told Â鶹´«Ã½ that the delay could have been avoided.
In 1995, the AECL shut down one of two Chalk River reactors, leaving the 50-year-old reactor without a backup.
The employee, speaking anonymously to Â鶹´«Ã½, said a dysfunctional relationship between AECL and its federal regulator, the Canadian Society of Nuclear Medicine led to ineffective communication between the two sides.
A spokesman for AECL rejected the theory of a dysfunctional relationship, and the regulator declined to comment.
