The Nuclear Research and Consultancy Group (NRG) is scheduled to restart its nuclear reactor in Petten, Netherlands, on February 18, ending a six-month shutdown.
The facility has been closed since last August for repairs. It produces approximately one-third of the world's supply of medical isotopes.
According to the Dutch news agency Novum, NRG expects sufficient supplies of medical isotopes from other reactors to be delivered on Friday to help cover demand until next week, when production resumes.
Hazelwood, MO-based Mallinckrodt, a subsidiary of Covidien of Hamilton, Bermuda, is a joint venture partner with NRG at Petten. Mallinckrodt provides approximately 40% of the U.S. medical isotope supply.
"Covidien is optimistic about the Dutch Cabinet's decision to permit NRG to restart the High Flux Reactor in Petten with additional measures in place to protect public safety and the environment," said Covidien spokesperson JoAnna Schooler. "Our highest priority is helping healthcare professionals meet the diagnostic needs of patients. We will be working diligently to ramp up our production over the next several weeks."
Related Reading
Covidien, B&W to tackle medical isotope dilemma, January 28, 2009
Report: Use of low-enriched uranium in medical isotopes is feasible, January 15, 2009
NRCG reactor will be down longer, December 22, 2008
Belgium to restart medical isotope production, November 5, 2008
Dutch reactor won't restart until February 2009, October 15, 2008
Copyright © 2009 AuntMinnie.com
![Overview of the study design. (A) The fully automated deep learning framework was developed to estimate body composition (BC) (defined as subcutaneous adipose tissue [SAT] in liters; visceral adipose tissue [VAT] in liters; skeletal muscle [SM] in liters; SM fat fraction [SMFF] as a percentage; and intramuscular adipose tissue [IMAT] in deciliters) from MRI. The fully automated framework comprised one model (model 1) to quantify different BC measures (SAT, VAT, SM, SMFF, and IMAT) as three-dimensional (3D) measures from whole-body MRI scans. The second model (model 2) was trained to identify standardized anatomic landmarks along the craniocaudal body axis (z coordinate field), which allowed for subdividing the whole-body measures into different subregions typically examined on clinical routine MRI scans (chest, abdomen, and pelvis). (B) BC was quantified from whole-body MRI in over 66,000 individuals from two large population-based cohort studies, the UK Biobank (UKB) (36,317 individuals) and the German National Cohort (NAKO) (30,291 individuals). Bar graphs show age distribution by sex and cohort. BMI = body mass index. (C) After the performance assessment of the fully automated framework, the change in BC measures, distributions, and profiles across age decades were investigated. Age-, sex-, and height-adjusted body composition reference curves were calculated and made publicly available in a web-based z-score calculator (https://circ-ml.github.io).](https://img.auntminnieeurope.com/mindful/smg/workspaces/default/uploads/2026/05/body-comp.XgAjTfPj1W.jpg?auto=format%2Ccompress&dpr=2&fit=crop&h=167&q=70&w=250)
