Assessing the 210At impurity in the production of 211At for radiotherapy by 210Po analysis via isotope dilution alpha spectrometry.

A method for assessing the impurity 210At in cyclotron-produced 211At via isotope dilution alpha spectrometry is presented. The activity of 210At is quantified by measuring the activity of daughter nuclide 210Po. Counting sources are prepared by spontaneous deposition of Po on a silver disc. Activity of 210At (at the time of 210Po maximum activity) is found to be 83.5+/-9.0 Bq, corresponding to an atom ratio (210At:211At at the time of distillation) of 0.010+/-0.007% (k=2). The method produces high-quality alpha spectra, with baseline alpha-peak resolution and chemical yields of greater than 85%.