Nuclear reaction / Cross section / Thick target yield / Integral yield / Separation of positron emitter52 Mn / Ion exchange chromatography Summary. With respect to the production of no-carrieradded 52 Mn nuclear reactions on natural chromium were investigated. Cross sections of the reactions nat Cr( p, x) 48 V, 48,49,51 Cr, 52g,m Mn were determined in the proton energy range of 7.6 to 45 MeV. Additionally, production yields of 52g,m Mn and 51 Cr were measured in the energy range from 8.2 to 16.9 MeV and therefrom the calculated saturation thick target yields were obtained as (2.55 ± 0.31), (6.96 ± 0.57), and (1.53 ± 0.15) GBq/μA, respectively.For in vivo applications like PET, low toxicity is critical and sufficient activity of a radiolabelled compound mandatory. Thus, additional purification steps after separation of radionuclides and target materials have to be avoided. However, no isolation procedure has been reported in the literature so far where radiomanganese is directly obtained in a nonhazardous solution. Therefore a new separation procedure was developed utilizing the cation-exchange resin DOWEX 50W×8 (H + -form). 52g Mn was quantitatively isolated from "bulk" chromium after 3 to 4 h in non-hazardous 0.067 M ammonium citrate solution. Up to 99% of 52g Mn activity was harvested within 10 to 15 mL eluent solution with no measureable 51 Cr impurities.