Critical US medical radioisotope shortage sparks Obama administration response

July 9, 2:18 PMMiami Health Care ExaminerDeborah Shlian

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Photo: U of Miami Nuclear Medicine website

 US hospitals and patients are now suffering “the most significant shortage that we have seen to date” according to a letter sent yesterday to customers of one of the larger distributors of medical radioisotopes.

 The shortage, reported here on June 19, was first created by the May shutdown of Canada’s 52-year-old Chalk River reactor in eastern Ontario which produces half of the US supply of medical isotopes used in scans that help diagnose heart disease and the spread of cancer. Initially thought to be offline for only a month, this second shutdown in less than two years will likely be much longer. Hospitals around the country have begun to ration many important diagnostic tests and even close down clinical cancer trials.

In the meantime, the situation is expected to get much worse next week when the world’s largest operating isotope-production reactor in the Netherlands goes off line for at least a month of maintenance. The Canadian reactor and the one in the Netherlands together produce 70 percent of the world’s medical isotopes.

Currently, there are no reactors that make medical isotopes in the United States. However, there may be a silver lining in this crisis, according to  Dr. Alan J. Kuperman, Director, Nuclear Proliferation Prevention Program, Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law, University of Texas at Austin.

A June 15 letter sent to the US Congress from a coalition of US nuclear medicine and non-proliferation experts including Kuperman demanding that Washington begin domestic production using low-enriched uranium (LEU), which is unsuitable for nuclear weapons. has compelled a significant response from the US government. “This not only should assure the supply of medical isotopes in the long run,” Kuperman said, “but should also expedite the phase out of global commerce in bomb-grade uranium -- thereby reducing risks of nuclear proliferation and nuclear terrorism."

In an open presentation yesterday at the National Academies, the Department of Energy (DOE) revealed that the Obama Administration has allocated $120 million over 4 years to develop the US production of medical isotopes using safer low-enriched uranium (LEU), rather than the nuclear weapons-grade, highly enriched uranium (HEU) that is used by the existing producers.

According to Kuperman, both House and Senate appropriations subcommittees have allocated $10-20 million in initial funding in FY 2010 for development of US production of medical isotopes using LEU. The full committees have yet to consider the bills.