Customer updates

Health product supply

27 November

Iodine-131

We've identified a potential gap in the production capacity of our overseas partners which may result in a limited supply of Iodine-131 from 14 December. At this stage, there will be no supply for the week beginning 21 December.

ANSTO is using its best efforts to resolve this issue, but we wanted to provide advance notice so you could plan patient treatments. We encourage customers to order early.

Details of future calibrations are below: 

• Made to order capsules will be calibrated Monday 7 December and available for delivery from Tuesday 8
• Capsules and solutions for week commencing 14 December, calibrated for 7 December will be available depending on availability of size and stocks - these orders need to be placed by 1 pm Wednesday 9 December
• A limited quantity of pre-made set size capsules will be available from Monday 14 December
• We encourage customers to order early for patients requiring Iodine-131 for the week commencing 14 December

We appreciate that this is a challenging time for all involved, and we will share further information as it becomes available.
 

24 November

ANSTO has made progress in securing the supply of Mo-99 and I-131 from overseas partners. Additional Mo-99 is scheduled to arrive from overseas meaning our schedule will be slightly reworked. 

Timing and product information is below. All arrangements are dependent on supply availability and international flight arrivals.

Domestic

Export

• Technetium-99 Generators: No supply available for four weeks (to mid-December).
• Iodine-131 Capsules & Solutions: No calibrations available on 30 November. Future calibrations to be advised.  
• Chromium-51: Calibrations available for 1 November and 1 December.

OPAL scheduled maintenance update

18 November 2020

There will be a delay in the restart of ANSTO's OPAL reactor due to an anomaly identified in scheduled maintenance. This will impact our Health product supply from 23 November onwards. 

The team is currently conducting ongoing inspections and data collection to evaluate and assess the situation fully. As a result, the planned shut-down has been extended to allow for additional tests, inspections and analysis. These will take around two weeks and will help determine when OPAL will restart.

In total, it will be at least four weeks (to mid-December) minimum before full domestic nuclear medicine supply is available. ANSTO is working with multiple overseas suppliers to secure as much product as possible over the period when supply is unavailable.

We will continue to work with the nuclear medicine community in Australia with regard to the distribution and prioritisation of important nuclear medicine across metropolitan, regional, and rural Australia as well as our export customers. We apologise to customers for any inconvenience that supply disruptions will cause.

Plans and securing supply
ANSTO is currently working with the international nuclear medicine community to source supply of Molybdenum-99 and Iodine-131. However, from 30 November even if supply is secured, we expect less than 50 per cent of our usual supply. 

We are doing all we can to close this gap but want to provide as much notice as possible so we can work with you to plan accordingly.

We're here to support you.
We understand the pressure this places on practitioners and their patients. Customer Service will be in contact to outline a tailored supply plan for 23 November onwards. Please reach out with any questions:

Phone: 1800 251 572 or +61 2 9717 9992
Email: health@ansto.gov.au

Updates with more information will be available on our website as soon as it is readily available.

Holiday season delivery schedule

6 November 2020

Thank you for your continued support throughout 2020.

We appreciate planning is key around this time of the year, so we've listed our holiday season open times and delivery schedules below. Normal business hours and deliveries will recommence on Thursday, 2 January 2021.

Customer Service hours

Closed: Friday 25 December, Saturday 26 December, Monday 28 December, Friday 1 January

Open: Tuesday 29 December

Order and delivery schedule

If you have any questions, please reach out to Customer Service.