Next week things could get worse too as the reactor in the Netherlands goes offline for it’s annual scheduled maintenance. The Chalk River reactor and the one in the Netherlands have been producing 70% of the world’s supply of isotopes. I was at a hospital yesterday listening to the nuclear medicine department having to re-schedule a patient due to lack of isotopes, so the shortage is alive and well here in the US. We need to at some point in time have our own created in the US, and it appears the Obama administration is now addressing the situation too. 
In a related story, patients in Canada were re-scheduled for treatment as the plane was delayed for take off. BD
Isotope Shortage Beginning to be Felt at USC Medical and other Facilities in US and Canada - Update
US hospitals and patients are now suffering “the most significant shortage that we have seen to date” according to a letter sent yesterday to customers of one of the larger distributors of medical radioisotopes.
The shortage, reported here on June 19, was first created by the May shutdown of Canada’s 52-year-old Chalk River reactor in eastern Ontario which produces half of the US supply of medical isotopes used in scans that help diagnose heart disease and the spread of cancer. Initially thought to be offline for only a month, this second shutdown in less than two years will likely be much longer. Hospitals around the country have begun to ration many important diagnostic tests and even close down clinical cancer trials.
In an open presentation yesterday at the National Academies, the Department of Energy (DOE) revealed that the Obama Administration has allocated $120 million over 4 years to develop the US production of medical isotopes using safer low-enriched uranium (LEU), rather than the nuclear weapons-grade, highly enriched uranium (HEU) that is used by the existing producers.
Critical US medical radioisotope shortage sparks Obama administration response
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