Quote:
Originally Posted by mykalberta
They should either simply shut down the reactor or refuse to sell these outside of Canada. I highly doubt the sale of these isotopes cover the cost of operation.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mykalberta
Then its an easy decision. Shut down the reactor and be done with all the hassles.
After reading more of what the facility is, they should transfer its duties to another reactor.
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No offense to you personally MYK because a lot of people don't know much about Nuclear Medicine but these posts show a lot of ignorance.
First of all, as I mentioned in my post above and notably before yours, reactors that produce medical isotopes cannot produce power... but the same is true the other way around. Nuclear Power Plants cannot produce medical isotopes.
Even if the business is run at a loss, Nuclear Medicine is an absolutely unquestionably essential branch of medicine that would cease to exist if Chalk River shut down permanently before a replacement is brought online.
There are assessments of renal function and cardiac function that can only be done by Nuclear Medicine... such as determining the viability of tissue affected by a heart attack so physicians can determine what, if any, benefit there is to restoring blood flow to the tissue; determining if the tissue is simply dormant or if it is truly dead.
You are also talking about eliminating radiation treatment for thyroid cancer and several other types of cancer as well as treatment of hyperthyroidism.
The heart of the matter is that, by and large, Nuclear Medicine is the only diagnostic imaging that can image physiology instead of just anatomy.
The Chalk River reactor is unquestioningly and undeniably essential, despite the fact that it loses money.
If you have any questions about Nuclear Medicine, feel free to ask.