The Chalk River reactor will be down until the end of year, says Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. as it needs at least that long to figure out how to repair the leaky and aging reactor.

The 52-year-old reactor supplied a third of the world’s medical isotopes until it was shut down in mid-May because it was leaking radioactive water.

While the closure has strained many health authorities reliant on its supply of medical isotopes, Interior Health has remained in good stead through it all.

“There is still a situation, and we expect it to last awhile, but other than a lot of administrative work to keep things going, we’ve had a very minimal impact,” explained Zeno Cescon, IHA’s director of diagnostic imaging, adding that the odd appointment gets postponed, but to date never for more than a day or so.

Isotopes are used to test patients with cancer, heart disease and other serious conditions, and within the health authority there are five centres that use nuclear medicine. Penticton residents in need of that method of treatment are generally directed to Kelowna General Hospital.

The biggest reason local patients aren’t feeling the strain of the global shortage is that the previous plant shutdown of November 2007, taught health authorities an important lesson and they decided to diversify their sources as well as create a provincial system to deal with the current scenario.

Between a previously established relationship with a plant out of Netherlands and the provincial sharing program which manages hospitals supplies, there’s been little lag time.

However, the biggest strain to come from this episode may be from rising expenses.

“This will affect our budget,” said Cescon. “It’s a bit more expensive for our operating budget. There are transportation costs and the expense of (dollar exchanges).”

The amount of time administrators have to put in to shift around supplies will also raise costs.

“The bottom line is we’re getting the work done,” explained Cescon.

As to how this added expense will play out when the health authority figures out how to address its budgetary issues remains to be seen.

In recent weeks, Interior Health’s CEO Murray Ramsden announced a $28 million deficit.  According to various reports, he instructed clinical programs to operate at 2008/09 service levels as part of the plan to overcome the shortfall.

Ramsden did not return repeated calls for comment.