Isotope fiasco laid at feet of MDS Nordion

[daleo]

OTTAWA — Canada could have avoided the recent medical isotope crisis if supplier MDS Nordion had joined international efforts to co-ordinate global production, the Canadian Medical Association Journal reports.

...
Alan Kuperman, a policy analyst for the Nuclear Control Institute in the United States, told the journal it's not in MDS Nordion's commercial interests to join in international contingency planning with rival suppliers in Europe.

“They see themselves as the big dog. They are not going to share information with the small ones nipping at their heels,” said Prof. Kuperman, a professor of public affairs at the University of Texas.

Prof. Kuperman maintained there is plenty of “surplus capacity” among isotope suppliers but MDS Nordion and AECL didn't want their competitors to pick up the slack when the Chalk River reactor was shut down.

“Instead, they went to the public and the Canadian government. That was misleading and, one could argue, socially irresponsible.”
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http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080204.wtopes0204/BNStory/National/home
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As we figured, it was all about money.