Activation cross sections of α-particle induced nuclear reactions on hafnium and deuteron induced nuclear reaction on tantalum: Production of 178W/178mTa generator

Abstract

In the frame of a systematic study of charged particle production routes of medically relevant radionuclei, the excitation function for indirect production of 178m Ta through nat Hf(α,xn) 178−178m Ta nuclear reaction was measured for the first time up to 40 MeV. In parallel, the side reactions nat Hf(α,x) 179,177,176,175 W, 183,182,178g,177,176,175 Ta, 179m,177m,175 Hf were also assessed. Stacked foil irradiation technique and γ-ray spectrometry were used. New experimental cross section data for the nat Ta(d,xn) 178 W reaction are also reported up to 40 MeV. The measured excitation functions are compared with the results of the ALICE-IPPE, and EMPIRE nuclear reaction model codes and with the TALYS 1.4 based data in the TENDL-2013 library. The thick target yields were deduced and compared with yields of other charged particle ((p,4n), (d,5n) and ( 3 He,x)) production routes for 178 W.

Activation cross-sections of proton induced reactions on natHf in the 38–65 MeV energy range: Production of 172Lu and of 169Yb

“… The poor prediction capability of the TENDL in case of 3 He induced reactions, in some cases for alpha particle induced reactions and for high energy proton induced reactions. Table 1. Main parameters of the experiment and the methods of data evaluations.…”

“…If carrier free 172 Lu is needed, it can be produced only via the 172 Yb(p,n), 170 Yb( 3 He,n) 172 Hf  172 Lu reactions. These production routes however require highly enriched targets, expensive 3 He beam, long irradiation times as the production yields are low.…”

“…We already published activation cross sections on proton induced reaction up to 36 MeV [1], on deuteron induced reactions up to 50 MeV [2] and for alpha induced reactions up to 35 MeV [3]. In this work we extend the energy range of the proton induced reactions up to 65 MeV.…”

Recommended Nuclear Data for the Production of Selected Therapeutic Radionuclides

“…A. nat Ta(d,xn) 178 W Two complementary datasets were found for nat Ta(d,xn) 178 W [32,33] and are shown in Figure 5(a). The two experiments exhibit disagreement in energy near 40 MeV.…”

Uses of alpha particles, especially in nuclear reaction studies and medical radionuclide production

“…Furthermore, excitation functions of -particle induced reactions on a large number of target elements have been measured in recent years in several laboratories (cf. [226][227][228][229][230][231][232][233][234][235][236] ral isotopic composition may be potentially useful for developing production routes of a few radionuclides. However, further studies related to practical production using highly-enriched targets are needed.…”