Generation of Radioisotopes with Accelerator Neutrons by Deuterons

Abstract

A new system proposed for the generation of radioisotopes with accelerator neutrons by deuterons (GRAND) is described by mainly discussing the production of 99 Mo used for nuclear medicine diagnosis. A prototype facility of this system consists of a cyclotron to produce intense accelerator neutrons from the nat C(d,n) reaction with 40 MeV 2 mA deuteron beams, and a sublimation system to separate 99m Tc from an irradiated 100 MoO 3 sample. About 8.1 TBq/week of 99 Mo is produced by repeating irradiation on an enriched 100 Mo sample (251 g) with accelerator neutrons for two days three times. It meets about 10% of the 99 Mo demand in Japan. The characteristic feature of the system lies in its capability to reliably produce a wide variety of high-quality, carrier-free, carrier-added radioisotopes with a minimum level of radioactive waste without using uranium. The system is compact in size, and easy to operate; therefore it could be used worldwide to produce radioisotopes for medical, research, and industrial applications.

Development of a code system DEURACS for theoretical analysis and prediction of deuteron-induced reactions

“…Recently, intensive neutron sources using deuteron accelerators have been proposed for various applications such as the International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility (IFMIF) [1] and Neutron For Science (NFS) in SPIRAL2 [2], and also medical applications such as boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) [3] and production of radioisotopes for medical use [4,5]. In these facilities, the (d,xn) reactions on light elements (Li, Be, C, etc.)…”

Production of 92Y via the 92Zr(n,p) reaction using the C(d,n) accelerator neutron source

“…The accelerator-based neutron method shows promise for the production of various medical radioisotopes [6]. In the method proposed, 92 Y would be produced via the 92 Zr(n, p) reaction based on an accelerator neutron source from C(d,n).…”

New developments in the experimental data for charged particle production of medical radioisotopes

“…Several attempts have been made to elaborate methods to substitute the reactor HEU (highly enriched uranium) production route by LEU (low enriched uranium target), fast neutron [15,16], high energy photon [17] and charged particle irradiation, both for 99 Mo production [18,19] and direct 99m Tc production [20]. Fig.…”