Final shipment of weapons-grade uranium due at Ontario facility this year
The United States has approved what is expected to be the last shipment of weapons-grade uranium to be sent to Canada for the production of medical isotopes.
OTTAWA—The United States has approved what is expected to be the last shipment of weapons-grade uranium to be sent to Canada for the production of medical isotopes.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission signed an export licence June 23 to transport 8.1 kilograms of highly enriched uranium from Oak Ridge, Tenn., along a secret route to Chalk River, Ont., by the end of this year.
There, for what is expected to be the last time, the uranium will be used to produce target material for the aging National Research Universal (NRU) reactor to irradiate in order to produce medical isotopes used in nuclear medicine.
“The game is over for Canada’s unnecessary and irresponsible use of bomb-grade uranium to produce medical isotopes. Better late than never,” Alan Kuperman, coordinator of the Nuclear Proliferation Prevention Project at the University of Texas at Austin, said in a statement Monday.
THE LAST SHIPMENT
Kuperman has long been tracking the controversial U.S. exports of highly enriched uranium to Canada.
The Conservative government has committed to shutting down the routine production of medical isotopes at the NRU by Oct. 31, 2016, with the possibility of the NRU retaining licences to operate until March 2018 in case of unexpected shortages. The isotope has a very short lifespan, causing it to disappear within a day of being generated and so it cannot be stockpiled.
Kuperman said that based on his analysis of past usage, the newly approved shipment should last until production shuts down.
WHAT IT MEANS
Kuperman said Canada reneged on a pledge to convert to low-enriched uranium made in the 1990s — when it first announced its failed plan to build two new reactors that would have replaced the NRU.
Kuperman said “it’s almost fateful” that, with the pending closure of the NRU, Canada is finally abandoning highly enriched uranium.
AROUND THE WORLD
The Chalk River reactor, which began operating in 1957, is one of five major producers of molybdenum-99, which decays into the technetium-99m isotope used in 85 per cent of nuclear medicine procedures such as bone scans and other diagnostic tests.
The other reactors, in Australia, South Africa, Belgium and the Netherlands, have either already begun, or will soon begin, using only low-enriched uranium.
“Canada is the only one of the big producers that did not commit or make efforts to convert its reactor-based production from (highly enriched uranium) to (low-enriched uranium),” Kuperman said.
THE FUTURE OF CANADIAN ISOTOPES
Pending approval by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, Canadian Nuclear Laboratories Ltd., the subsidiary of Atomic Energy of Canada Limited that operates the NRU, will keep the reactor on standby until March 2018 in case of unexpected shortages in global supply.
Canadian Nuclear Laboratories did not respond to requests for comment.
Other sources, such as a cyclotron operated by TRIUMF, Canada’s national nuclear laboratory for particle and nuclear physics at the University of British Columbia, are in the works, but even that project would produce only about 20 per cent of the Canadian supply.
“We remain really quite concerned about the medical isotopes supply,” said Dr. Andrew Ross, president of the Canadian Association of Nuclear Medicine.
The United States has approved what is expected to be the last shipment of weapons-grade uranium to be sent to Canada for the production of medical isotopes.
FRED CHARTRAND / THE CANADIAN PRESS file photo
Chalk River Laboratories in eastern Ontario produces most of the medical isotopes used across North America. A final shipment of highly enriched uranium will be transported from Tennesee to Chalk River, Ont., by the end of this year.
OTTAWA—The United States has approved what is expected to be the last shipment of weapons-grade uranium to be sent to Canada for the production of medical isotopes.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission signed an export licence June 23 to transport 8.1 kilograms of highly enriched uranium from Oak Ridge, Tenn., along a secret route to Chalk River, Ont., by the end of this year.
There, for what is expected to be the last time, the uranium will be used to produce target material for the aging National Research Universal (NRU) reactor to irradiate in order to produce medical isotopes used in nuclear medicine.
“The game is over for Canada’s unnecessary and irresponsible use of bomb-grade uranium to produce medical isotopes. Better late than never,” Alan Kuperman, coordinator of the Nuclear Proliferation Prevention Project at the University of Texas at Austin, said in a statement Monday.
THE LAST SHIPMENT
Kuperman has long been tracking the controversial U.S. exports of highly enriched uranium to Canada.
The Conservative government has committed to shutting down the routine production of medical isotopes at the NRU by Oct. 31, 2016, with the possibility of the NRU retaining licences to operate until March 2018 in case of unexpected shortages. The isotope has a very short lifespan, causing it to disappear within a day of being generated and so it cannot be stockpiled.
Kuperman said that based on his analysis of past usage, the newly approved shipment should last until production shuts down.
WHAT IT MEANS
Kuperman said Canada reneged on a pledge to convert to low-enriched uranium made in the 1990s — when it first announced its failed plan to build two new reactors that would have replaced the NRU.
Kuperman said “it’s almost fateful” that, with the pending closure of the NRU, Canada is finally abandoning highly enriched uranium.
AROUND THE WORLD
The Chalk River reactor, which began operating in 1957, is one of five major producers of molybdenum-99, which decays into the technetium-99m isotope used in 85 per cent of nuclear medicine procedures such as bone scans and other diagnostic tests.
The other reactors, in Australia, South Africa, Belgium and the Netherlands, have either already begun, or will soon begin, using only low-enriched uranium.
“Canada is the only one of the big producers that did not commit or make efforts to convert its reactor-based production from (highly enriched uranium) to (low-enriched uranium),” Kuperman said.
THE FUTURE OF CANADIAN ISOTOPES
Pending approval by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, Canadian Nuclear Laboratories Ltd., the subsidiary of Atomic Energy of Canada Limited that operates the NRU, will keep the reactor on standby until March 2018 in case of unexpected shortages in global supply.
Canadian Nuclear Laboratories did not respond to requests for comment.
Other sources, such as a cyclotron operated by TRIUMF, Canada’s national nuclear laboratory for particle and nuclear physics at the University of British Columbia, are in the works, but even that project would produce only about 20 per cent of the Canadian supply.
“We remain really quite concerned about the medical isotopes supply,” said Dr. Andrew Ross, president of the Canadian Association of Nuclear Medicine.
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