Chalk River poised to resume production

Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. says it expects to have the Ontario reactor back up and running this month.

The 53-year-old National Research Universal reactor supplied a third of the worldÂ’s medical isotopes until AECL shut it down in May 2009.

The shutdown came after scientists found a pinhole-sized radioactive water leak.

What was originally supposed to be a month-long shutdown has dragged on for more than a year.

Doctors have been scrambling to make do with an erratic supply of medical isotopes to diagnose cancer and heart ailments.