Novel design and diagnostics improvements for increased production capacity and improved reliability at the Los Alamos Isotope Production Facility

Production of zirconium-88 via proton irradiation of metallic yttrium and preparation of target for neutron transmission measurements at DICER

“…Two yttrium (Y) metal targets were encapsulated in a standard aluminum bolt-together target capsule (~1 mm window) and third target was encapsulated in Inconel capsule (~0.5 mm window). All targets were irradiated in the low energy target position at the Isotope Production Facility (IPF) 18 . A total of three irradiations were conducted, the first in December 2020, the second in June 2021 and the third in August 2022.…”

“…The goal of the present work was to produce tens to hundreds of GBq amounts of 88 Zr by proton irradiation at the Los Alamos Isotope Production Facility (IPF) 18 , separate the produced 88 Zr from the target material and impurities and prepare a 88 Zr target suitable for neutron transmission measurements at DICER.…”

Large-scale production of 88Y and 88Zr/88Y generators: A proof of concept study for a 70 MeV H− cyclotron

“…Both facilities are also involved in activities to increase the production beam intensity further. An upgraded beam delivery system at the IPF may serve to increase the intensity on certain targets up to 400 µA in future (O'Brien et al, 2020). The only potential disadvantage of larger-format targets is that a larger quantity of irradiated material has to be processed when extracting the produced radionuclides, also leading to more radioactive waste.…”

Investigating High-Energy Proton-Induced Reactions on Spherical Nuclei: Implications for the Pre-Equilibrium Exciton Model

“…The upstream beamline components at IPF have a significant effect on beam energy that must be taken into account [22]. Two materials exist upstream of the target box entrance window: the beam window separating beamline vacuum from the target chamber and a single cooling water channel defined by the distance between the beam window and the aluminum target box window during operation.…”

“…During operation at low beam currents, typical of this work, the beam window elastically deforms towards the vacuum side by approximately 0.12 mm. Given the geometry of the target box, this information implies that the proton beam travels through a cooling water channel 7.414 mm thick [22]. The combined upstream effects total an approximate effective degrader areal density of 1165 mg/cm 2 .…”