The public health watchdog RIVM has warned that the Netherlands’ capacity to produce cancer medicine could be jeopardised if the nuclear reactor in Petten is not replaced.

Petten is one of just six facilities worldwide that are licensed to produce isotopes that are used to diagnose and treat a range of serious diseases, including cancer.

However, the 45-year-old reactor is nearing the end of its working life and no decision has yet been taken to replace it. The RIVM says production is in a ‘fragile’ state and will continue to be so at least until 2020.

Radioactive isotopes are used in 400,000 diagnoses and 4,000 treatments a year, according to the RIVM. Without them doctors will have to rely on less effective tests and drugs, leading to a reduction in the quality of diagnoses and worse outcomes for patients.

‘The reactor is urgently needed for Dutch and global production of isotopes,’ said Marcel Stokkel of the Dutch Association for Nuclear Medicine (NVNG).

Doctors raised the alarm last year about the state of the reactor and called for the government to make a decision by the end of this year. A new reactor would take seven years to build from scratch.

A successor has been proposed, known as the ‘Pallas’ project, but the process has been held up by disputes about disposing of nuclear waste, said Stokkel.