Highly Enriched Uranium-Free Medical Radioisotope Production Methods: An Integrative Review

Abstract

The ever-growing need for radiopharmaceuticals, i.e., compounds containing pharmaceutical drugs and radioisotopes used for medical diagnostic imaging (SPECT/PET scan) and treating neoplasms, is significantly leading to an increased demand for such substances in hospitals and clinics worldwide. Currently, most large-scale productions of radioisotopes required for radiopharmaceuticals are carried out in research reactors, via the fission of highly enriched uranium. However, because large amounts of radioactive waste are produced as byproducts in this process, new greener methods are needed for radioisotope production. This work presents an integrative literature review and summarizes enriched uranium-free methods for radioisotope production, accomplished through the adoption of new reaction routes, distinct acceleration technologies, or by using other physical processes. This review considered forty-eight studies published from 2010 to 2021 on three established virtual databases. Among these selected works, a cyclotron is the most adopted HEU-free method for radioisotope production, and 44Sc, 68Ga, and 99mTc are the medical radioisotopes most often reported as produced by using the investigated HEU-free production methods.