OTTAWA – Officials at the main European reactor that produces medical isotopes have their fingers crossed that the shuttered Chalk River facility will be running by early next year, when they must close their own operation for five to six months.

“It would be pretty difficult to see how the medical community could manage to cope if we have to go out for a long period before the (Canadian) reactor gets back,” said Kevin Charlton, commercial manager of isotope supply at the Petten HFR reactor in the Netherlands.

Between them, the HFR-Petten and Chalk River’s NRU reactor produce about two-thirds of the world’s medical isotopes, which are essential for diagnosis of illness, from cancers to heart and bone disease.

Chalk River shut in May after a leak of heavy water was discovered. Its owner, Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., says it will be offline at least three months. Some experts expect the closure to be much longer.

Charlton said the Dutch reactor is looking at ways to shorten its 2010 shutdown and may delay it until March but “there’s quite a lot of engineering work to be done.

For now, Petten has been able to ramp up production by about 50% by not using the reactor for other tasks, such as industrial production or experiments.

The Dutch reactor must close for four weeks in July for inspection, however, after running into problems with part of the piping in its cooling systems. There’s no wiggle room in that plan.

christina.spencer@sunmedia.ca