The Ontario Ministry of Health has just issued a notice that the Chalk River nuclear reactor will be out of service until the end of 2009 at least. This reactor generated half of the world’s supply of Tc-99m, used in medical imaging studies. The problem is about to get worse as one of the few other reactors used to generate Tc-99m, the High Flux reactor in the Netherlands, will be down from July 28 to August 21.
Hospitals were already rationing tests due to the shortage. In the next month or so, expect the shortage to become even more severe.
