Medical isotope collection from ISAC targets

Abstract

The ISAC facility (Isotope Separation and Acceleration) at TRIUMF has recently started to provide isotopes for pre-clinical nuclear medicine studies. By irradiating ISOL (Isotope Separation OnLine) targets with a 480 MeV proton beam from the TRIUMF H- cyclotron, the facility can deliver a large variety of radioactive isotope beams (RIB) for research in the fields of nuclear astrophysics, nuclear structure and material science with half-lives down to a few milliseconds via an electrostatic beamline network. For the collection of medical isotopes, typically with half-lives in the range of hours or days, we have developed a compact apparatus for the implantation of mass-separated RIB on a target disc at energies between 20-55 keV. In this paper, we also discuss two different retrieval methods of the implanted activity from the implantation target: by chemical etching of the target surface and by recoil collection of implanted alpha emitters.

SPECT imaging of 226Ac as a theranostic isotope for 225Ac radiopharmaceutical development

“…TRIUMF (Vancouver, Canada) can produce small quantities of 226 Ac suitable for preclinical studies with high purity and specific activity. With TRIUMF's ISAC (Isotope Separation and Acceleration) facility, ISOL (isotope separation on-line) targets are irradiated with up to 100 μA of a 480 MeV proton beam from TRIUMF's main cyclotron (Kunz et al 2020, Fiaccabrino et al 2021. Detailed information on isotope yields is available in the ISAC Isotope Database (Kunz 2022).…”

Transuranium isotopes at ISAC/TRIUMF

“…It is dedicated to the collection of longlived radioactive isotopes for a variety of applications such as precision half-life measurements or quantum detector developments that require ion beam implantations at specific intensities and energies [16]. A major application area is the collection of isotopes for nuclear medicine research [17] [18]. The IIS provides the infrastructure for ion beam positioning, rastering and focusing on a custom implantation target that can be attached to a vacuum port within a user-designed vacuum chamber.…”