Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission renewed Canadian Nuclear Laboratories’ operating license for the Chalk River isotope reactor
The ability of our nuclear medicine community to be well supplied with Tc-99m compounds after the shutdown of the Chalk River reactor has been a worry as the community wondered when the reactor will finally go offline. Now we know the answer. The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) announced March 29th, its decision to renew Canadian Nuclear Laboratories’ (CNL) Nuclear Research and Test Establishment Operating License for the Chalk River Laboratories (CRL) site, located near Chalk River, Ontario. The license will be valid from April 1, 2018 until March 31, 2028. During the next license period, the National Research Universal (NRU) reactor will transition from operation to a safe shutdown state and then be prepared for decommissioning. Although the reactor is heading to shut down, it will take a several years. During that time we should be able to ramp up our supply of Moly-99 to meet the demand when the planned shutdown happens.