ABSTRACT
Natural antimony targets were irradiated in a 60 MeV bremsstrahlung beam and gamma spectrometric measurements were performed. The goal was to establish the yield of 117mSn, a radionuclide with great potential for application in medicine. Considering that 117mSn is predominantly produced through a photonuclear reaction in which an charged particle is emitted (121Sb(γ,p3n)), the yield of this tin isotope is much lower than the yields of several antimony isotopes produced in (γ,xn) reactions. It has been estimated that photonuclear reactions on natural antimony could produce 117mSn activities needed for therapeutic applications, with accelerators having electron currents of the order of mA. For the used bremsstrahlung energy of 60 MeV, it was estimated how much 119mSn activity can be expected when exposing the antimony target.
ABSTRACT
Photonuclear reactions on titanium targets of natural composition at the bremsstrahlung endpoint energy of 30 and 40 MeV have been investigated. The yields of 47Sc at the end of the bombardment were measured to be (0.45 ± 0.07) MBq/(µA h g) and (1.34 ± 0.12) MBq/(µA h g) for 30 and 40 MeV, respectively. Cross-sections per equivalent quantum of the reactions natTi(γ,x)43,44m,44g,46,47,48Sc and natTi(γ,xn)45Ti were measured.
ABSTRACT
We report on the development of a relatively new method for the production of (99)Mo/(99m)Tc. The method involves the irradiation of natural molybdenum using high-intensity bremsstrahlung photons from the electron beam of the LUE50 linear electron accelerator located at the Yerevan Physics Institute (YerPhi). The production method has been developed and shown to be successful. The linear electron accelerator at YerPhi was upgraded to allow for significant increases of the beam intensity and spatial density. The LUE50 was also instrumented by a remote control system for ease of operation. We have developed and tested the (99m)Tc extraction from the irradiation of natural MoO3. This paper reports on the optimal conditions of our method of (99)Mo production. We show the success of this method with the production and separation of the first usable amounts of (99m)Tc.