Some nuclear chemical aspects of medical generator nuclide production at the Los Alamos hot cell facility

Abstract

AbstractGenerator nuclides constitute a convenient tool for applications in nuclear medicine. In this paper, some radiochemical aspects of generator nuclide parents regularly processed at Los Alamos are introduced. The bulk production of the parent nuclides68Ge,82Sr,109Cd and88Zr using charged particle beams is discussed. Production nuclear reactions for these radioisotopes, and chemical separation procedures are presented. Experimental processing yields correspond to 80%-98% of the theoretical thick target yield. Reaction cross sections are modeled using the code ALICE-IPPE; it is observed that the model largely disagrees with experimental values for the nuclear processes treated. Radionuclide production batches are prepared 1-6 times yearly for sales. Batch activities range from 40 MBq to 75 GBq.