The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) announced March 29 that it renewed Canadian Nuclear Laboratories’ (CNL) Nuclear Research and Test Establishment Operating License for the Chalk River Laboratories (CRL) site. as of 2016, it was the world’s largest production reactor for medical nuclear imaging isotopes. However, the decision includes a plan to transition to shutdown and preparation for decommissioning by 2028.
The decision followed a public hearing Jan. 23–25, 2018. The new license will be valid from April 1, 2018 until March 31, 2028.
CRL is the largest single science and technology complex in Canada, located near Chalk River, Ontario, about 160 km northwest of Ottawa. The National Research Universal (NRU) reactor at Chalk River has been operating at CRL since 1957. Until Oct. 31, 2016, the reactor produced a large percentage of the world’s medical isotopes, used in both the diagnosis and treatment of life-threatening diseases. In late 2016, it ended production of molybdenum-99 (Mo-99), the precursor to the making of technetium-99m (Tc-99m), the most widely used radioisotope for single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) imaging.
Dave Fornell – Imaging Technology News – April 2, 2018.
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