MDS Nordion Continues to Urge Government of Canada to Complete MAPLE Project to Address Critical Medical Isotope Shortage
08 Luglio 2009 - 6:22PM
PR Newswire (US)
Experts Believe MAPLE Reactors Can Be Brought Into Service OTTAWA,
July 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- MDS Nordion, a leading provider of
medical isotopes and radiopharmaceuticals, today continued to urge
the Government of Canada and Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL)
to complete the MAPLE project to address the global shortage of
medical isotopes, following the announcement earlier today by AECL
that the 52-year-old National Research Universal (NRU) reactor at
Chalk River, Ontario will not return to service before late 2009.
There are no domestic or international sources of supply that can
fully mitigate this shortage, which has caused and will continue to
cause unavoidable and serious disruptions to patient care. The
Petten reactor in The Netherlands, which produces approximately 30%
of the world supply of medical isotopes, is also scheduled to be
shut down mid-July 2009 for approximately four weeks for scheduled
maintenance; and it is expected to be taken off line again in early
2010 to repair a leak. The fragility of the world's isotope supply
can be overcome. MDS Nordion believes it is critical that the
Canadian government direct AECL to honour its long-standing
commitment to replace the NRU by bringing the MAPLE facilities into
service. These facilities would enable Canada to maintain its
leadership position in the innovative and increasingly important
field of nuclear medicine. "The Government of Canada has put forth
various arguments for why the MAPLE reactors should not be
started," said Steve West, President of MDS Nordion. "However, a
number of organizations and scientific experts disagree with the
Government's position and believe that the MAPLE reactors are safe,
that the reactors work and that any technical challenges can be
overcome to bring the MAPLEs into service." "MDS continues to
believe that the solution to the global medical isotope crisis is
in Canada. The infrastructure is in place, and with the assistance
of an international consortium of nuclear experts, the MAPLE
facilities could be producing medical isotopes to the benefit of
patients worldwide." MAPLE Reactors: A Solution for Medical Isotope
Supply On June 18, 2009, at the Standing Committee on Natural
Resources in Ottawa, Dr. Harold Smith, ex-Manager, MAPLE Nuclear
Commissioning, HIZ and Associates Inc., testified that "I and my
team took both MAPLE 1 and MAPLE 2 to criticality. We measured the
positive (power coefficient of reactivity) PCR... there are two
MAPLE reactors, each with the capacity to deliver more than the
current world requirement (for medical isotopes). Positive PCR
requires a relatively simple engineering fix to restrain the bowing
of the elements and to reduce the PCR to approximately zero." On
June 11, 2009, at the Standing Committee on Natural Resources
hearing in Ottawa, Jill Chitra, an engineer and Vice-President,
Strategic Technologies at MDS Nordion stated that the MAPLE
reactors indeed work. "From 2000 to 2008, the MAPLE reactors ran
numerous times at various power levels, up to 80% power. During
tests, targets were inserted into the reactor for a number of those
tests. When targets are inserted in a reactor and it operates at
power, isotopes are created; moly-99 is created... those targets
could be removed and processed, and (if they were) you would have
medical isotopes for sale." Independent expert John Waddington
confirmed to the committee that they "had an accurate answer from
Ms. Chitra" regarding the creation of isotopes in the MAPLE
reactors. And in its January, 2009 report, Medical Isotope
Production Without Highly Enriched Uranium, The National Academy of
Science Committee stated that "the Committee assumes that the
worst-case scenario for fixing the MAPLE reactors involves the
replacement of the reactor cores. The cost of such replacements
would likely be small (tens of millions of dollars) in comparison
to the cost of building a new reactor (hundreds of millions of
dollars) or refurbishing the (National Research Universal) NRU
(also hundreds of millions of dollars according to a representative
of Natural Resources Canada). Other Longer-Term Supply Alternatives
In addition to MAPLE, MDS Nordion will continue to examine other
supply alternatives. On June 15, 2009, MDS Nordion announced an
agreement with the Karpov Institute of Physical Chemistry in Russia
to study the feasibility of the Karpov Institute providing the
Company with a viable and reliable supply of Molybdenum-99 (Mo-99)
for the global nuclear medicine market. And on April 28, 2009, MDS
Nordion announced an agreement with TRIUMF, Canada's national
laboratory for particle and nuclear physics, to study the
feasibility of producing a viable and reliable supply of photo
fission-based Mo-99. Financial Impact As previously disclosed, the
financial impact of this extended interruption is expected to
reduce MDS Nordion's adjusted EBITDA by approximately US$4 million
per month. More Information Additional background about MDS
Nordion, the MAPLE project and medical isotope supply can be found
on MDS Inc.'s Website at
http://www.mdsinc.com/for_media/electronic_media_kit.asp#nordion
About MDS Nordion MDS Nordion, a business unit of MDS Inc., is a
global leader in providing medical isotopes for molecular and
diagnostic imaging, radiotherapeutics and sterilization
technologies for medical products that benefit the lives of
millions of people in more than 50 countries around the world. MDS
Nordion products and services are used on a daily basis by
pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, medical-device
manufacturers, hospitals, clinics and research laboratories. Find
out more at http://www.mdsnordion.com/ About MDS MDS Inc. (TSX:
MDS; NYSE: MDZ) is a global life sciences company that provides
market-leading products and services that our customers need for
the development of drugs, and the diagnosis and treatment of
disease. We are a leading global provider of pharmaceutical
contract research, medical isotopes for molecular imaging,
radiotherapeutics, and analytical instruments. MDS has more than
4,200 highly skilled people in 13 countries. Find out more at
http://www.mdsinc.com/ or by calling 1-888-MDS-7222, 24 hours a
day. Forward-Looking Statements This document contains
forward-looking statements. Some forward-looking statements may be
identified by words like "expects", "anticipates", "plans",
"intends", "indicates", "targeted" or similar expressions. The
statements are not a guarantee of future impact or performance and
are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties. The actual
impact to the Company of the NRU shutdown could differ materially
from that currently anticipated due to a number of factors,
including, the actual timing of a return to full production and
other risk factors identified in other documents filed by the
Company with Canadian and U.S. securities regulatory authorities
from time to time. DATASOURCE: MDS Nordion CONTACT: MEDIA: Shelley
Maclean, (613) 592-3400, ext. 2414, ; INVESTORS: Kim Lee, (905)
267-4230,
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