Canada House of Commons passes legislation to put reactor online, end medical isotope shortage

The Canadian House of Commons passed emergency legislation late Tuesday night aimed at bypassing Canada's nuclear safety watchdog and putting a swift end to a critical shortage of medical isotopes.

The bill will allow Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. to immediately restart the 50-year-old reactor at Chalk River, Ontario. It was shut down last week, sparking a shortage of radioisotopes — a substance used in diagnostic medical tests.

The reactor produces half the world's supply of radioisotopes, which are used in at least 15 million medical scans a year in the United States, by one estimate. Those scans are used to diagnose and assess a wide variety of conditions including cancer, heart disease and bone or kidney illnesses.

Since the closure, many hospitals began facing a shortage of a radioactive substance called technetium-99 that is injected into patients undergoing body scans. As a result, hospitals worldwide were forced to cut back on procedures and thousands of patients have had to postpone crucial medical tests.

The reactor was not slated to reopen until mid-January. The Canadian Society of Nuclear Medicine estimated the shortage will cause delays in treatment for 50,000 Canadians each month that services are reduced.

But following frantic behind-the-scenes negotiations, all the parties agreed to fast-track the legislation through Canada's House of Commons in one evening.

Despite some initial concerns by the opposition Liberals that the bill would undermine the country's independent nuclear safety regulator, all the parties eventually voiced support for the emergency legislation after hearing from experts during an unusual late-night hearing. A recorded vote was not taken.

The bill must still be passed by the Liberal-dominated Senate, which will likely deal with it swiftly on Wednesday. The Canadian Senate is unelected and rubber stamps most legislation passed by the House of Commons.

The legislation introduced by Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Tuesday would suspend the oversight role of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, which found serious safety concerns with the reactor last month, for 120 days.

The reactor closed Nov. 18 for maintenance. It was scheduled to open five days later but remained shut down to install safety equipment.

CNSC shut down the reactor after discovering that AECL had been operating it for a year without the required emergency power system connected to two cooling pumps.

The shutdown stopped the reactor's output of a radioactive substance called molybdenum-99, which is processed and packaged into canisters that are sold to big hospitals and specialized pharmacies. These cylinders are "milked" for their technetium-99, which is then prepared for use in the medical scans.

Since the technetium supply from each cylinder eventually depletes, the cylinders have to be regularly replaced. That is when the effect of the Chalk River reactor shutdown shows up.

Harper asserted Tuesday that there is no risk of a nuclear accident.

"The government has independent advice indicating there is no safety concern with the reactor," Harper told Parliament.

"On the contrary, what we do know is that the continuing actions of the Liberal-appointed Nuclear Safety Commission will jeopardize the health and safety and lives of tens of thousands of Canadians."

CNSC director general Barclay Howden said the Chalk River reactor's main cooling pumps must have power at all times, "under any conditions, regardless of whether it's earthquake, fire, flood or tornado," to ensure that the core does not melt down.

"Overall, it's a key upgrade and therefore it's key to nuclear safety," he said in an interview Tuesday.

AECL has proposed an interim fix, in which one pump would be hooked up to the emergency power supply. Howden said CNSC is waiting to see a detailed plan before evaluating the proposal.