Getting your player ready...
TORONTO — Canada’s state-owned atomic energy company said Thursday that it is restarting a nuclear reactor whose shutdown created a critical shortage of radioactive isotopes used to diagnose and treat cancer patients in Canada, the U.S. and many other nations.
Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. said it expected to begin producing the medical isotopes within seven or eight days.
The 50-year-old reactor at Chalk River, Ontario, was shut down Nov. 18 for maintenance, but the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission ordered an indefinite stoppage after discovering the reactor had been running for a year without the emergency power system being connected to two cooling pumps.
