The medical isotopes are produced by 1 plant in Canada, and 1 plant in Holland. Both plants are aging and require extensive maintenance.
That is why medical isotopes are in short supply; it has nothing to do with this.
Geez cleel - you made me go find the article and actually read it and not just the headline! (Popular Science, Nov. 2009, page 33).
You are right obviously about those two reactors. If I had read the article I would have seen that they were specialized reactors just to produce medical isotopes. I thought those were just leftover by-products of regular reactors. And then the Canadians were in the process of building one huge reactor so other countries figured it wouldn’t be competitive to build their own.
BUT - the Canadadians just stopped theirs because of so many major faults and problems. So everyone is set back 20 years! Some modifications may be made to some other plants so hope that can help for a bit.
Interesting article - thanks for making me read it.