 |
OTTAWA — Even though less than a quarter of scheduled repairs to the Chalk River nuclear reactor have been completed, Canada’s nuclear agency has begun ordering new supplies of highly enriched uranium to produce medical isotopes.
Atomic Energy of Canada Limited confirmed reports that an order for U.S. uranium had been placed for an expected restart date this spring.
“We’re still on track for returning the reactor to service for the end of March,” said AECL spokesman Dale Coffin. “We need to have an inventory on hand…and make sure we have them available because there is a lead time in the U.S. in order to process our order.”
For security reasons Coffin would not say how much highly enriched uranium had been ordered, when it would arrive or how many medical isotopes it would produce.
Medical isotopes are a key tool used to diagnose cancer and heart disease.
The NRU reactor in Chalk River was shut down in May of 2009 because of a power failure and has been kept offline since then to repair heavy water leaks found during the shutdown.
AECL originally said repairs would only take a few months but the deadline to have the reactor up and running has since been moved to the spring of 2010.
“My concern is they will get it up to an operational standard but then within weeks or months it will be shut down again for another problem,” said NDP natural resources critic
Nathan Cullen. “They are trying to make a statement here that they want to get this thing online but it feels like the train has left the station. Everyone is finding other sources of isotopes.”
Peter.zimonjic@sunmedia.ca