Possibilities for the production of radioisotopes for nuclear-medicine problems by means of photonuclear reactions
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CLEI Experiment
Possibilities for the Production of Radioisotopes for Nuclear-Medicine Problems by Means of Photonuclear Reactions L. Z. Dzhilavyan1)* , A. I. Karev2) , and V. G. Raevsky2) Received December 21, 2010
Abstract—For electrons of energy about 55 MeV that create an average current of about 40 μA, it is shown that the production of many of the radioisotopes important for nuclear medicine is possible in significant amounts. DOI: 10.1134/S1063778811120040
1. INTRODUCTION As soon as methods for producing radioisotopes became available, the latter found applications in various realms. In medicine, radioisotopes, which form a basis for its nuclear-medicine section, play an important role in investigations, diagnostics, and therapy [1–3]. The range of this section becomes clear if we recall that, in the United States of America, one-third of the patients undergo nuclear-medicine procedures [1]. Initially, nuclear reactors, which are able to produce large amounts of various, but, first of all, neutron-rich, radioisotopes, played the role of basic facilities for radioisotope production. Later on, it turned out that there was also a need for neutrondeficient radioisotopes, and accelerators of extremely light nuclei became a basic means for their production. However, various limitations and flaws inherent in the application of only these two source types have proven to be significant to the present time. First of all, radioisotope production, which has always been a task of secondary importance for the reactors used, as well as for comparatively large accelerators of extremely light nuclei, suffered a severe blow upon a considerable reduction of financial support of their primary tasks associated with investigations into nuclear and particle physics, as well as with nuclear weapons and power engineering [1]. Moreover, the exploitation of nuclear reactors, in general, and the existing procedures for the production of large amounts of radioisotopes at them, in particular, also lead to the formation of 1)
Institute for Nuclear Research, Russian Academy of Sciences, pr. Shestidesyatiletiya Oktyabrya 7a, Moscow, 117312 Russia. 2) Lebedev Institute of Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Leninskii pr. 53, Moscow, 117924 Russia. * E-mail:[email protected]
ecologically hazardous radioactive wastes. In view of this, interest in radioisotope-production sources of some third type that would provide an at least partial substitute for the first two types and which would be less disadvantageous than them is quite understandable. As a third source type, it has been repeatedly proposed to employ electron accelerators in radioisotope production (see, for example, [4–19], where earlier proposals made by groups including the present authors [14, 17] can also be found). In that case, ecological-safety requirements can be met much more easily than in the case of nuclear reactors, and the cost of building and exploiting pulsed electron accelerators can be made lower (especially with allowance for the possibility of concurrently employing
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