Production of 149Tb in gold by high-energy protons and its use as an intensity monitor

Progress in Targeted Alpha-Particle Therapy. What We Learned about Recoils Release from In Vivo Generators

“…Production of alpha-particle emitters includes, in general, practically all methods for preparation of radionuclide sources—irradiation with charged particles in accelerators, neutron irradiation in a nuclear reactor, separation from long-lived natural radionuclides and various combinations thereof [ 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 ]. The great advantage of nuclides decaying in a series over single alpha particle emitters is not only in the higher energy deposition in target tissue but, thanks to the good nuclear characteristics, also the possibility of construction of a radionuclide generator.…”

Alphas Branching Ratio in the Decay of Tb149

“…The formation of 149 Tb in foils of high-Z materials, particularly gold, has therefore often served for the monitoring of high-energy proton beams. 3,4 To put such measurements on an absolute basis, cross sections for production of the a branch of 149 Tb from gold by protons of various energies have been carefully determined. 3-6 However, the fraction of 149 Tb decays proceeding by a emission is still not accurately known; the literature values 7-10 for this fraction range from 0.1 to 0.2, with large uncertainties for the individual values.…”