Abstract
Radioactive lanthanides have become an important imaging, diagnostic and therapeutic tool in the medical field. The objective of our research was to investigate the feasibility of producing radioactive lanthanides with high specific activity in a small-scale research reactor using the Szilard–Chalmers method. The results indicate that the activated nuclides recoil out of the target after neutron capture and we obtain enrichment of the radionuclide compared to the bulk irradiation. These first attempts, result in enrichment factors and yields that are low but indicates a possibility of using this technique if the method is further optimized.
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Acknowledgments
We are grateful for the financial support by the U.S. Nuclear regulatory commission through the faculty development grant contract no. NRC-HQ-11-G-38-0037.
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Safavi-Tehrani, L., Miller, G.E. & Nilsson, M. Production of high specific activity radiolanthanides for medical purposes using the UC Irvine TRIGA reactor. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 303, 1099–1103 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-014-3486-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-014-3486-2