Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Estimation of 177Lu activity produced from direct and indirect routes in Indian research reactors

  • Original Research
  • Published:
Life Cycle Reliability and Safety Engineering Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

177Lu can be produced by neutron irradiation of 176Lu (direct route) or 176Yb (indirect route). In direct route, the thermal neutron capture cross-section of 176Lu does not vary as 1/v and shows strong temperature (temperature of medium as well as that of the thermalized neutrons) dependence, resulting in added complexities in radioactivity estimation. We use an analytical model to estimate the activity of 177Lu produced from direct as well as indirect routes. For direct route, we have used both Westcott convention-based method and one-group effective cross sections generated using multigroup cross-section library. Our estimations are also validated against known experimental results and compared to measured activity produced in Indian research reactors.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

available at irradiation position (H-07) in Dhruva research reactor (at 100 MW)

Fig. 4

available at irradiation position (D-5) in Apsara-U research reactor (at 2 MW)

Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Agarwal SK, Karhadkar CG, Zope AK, Singh K (2006) Dhruva: main design features, operational experience and utilization. Nucl Eng Des 236(7–8):747–757

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blaauw M, Ridikas D, Baytelesov S, Bedregal Salas PS, Chakrova Y, Cho Eun-Ha R, Dahalan et al (2017) Estimation of 99Mo production rates from natural molybdenum in research reactors. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 311:409–418

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brown DA, Chadwick MB, Roberto Capote AC, Kahler AT, Michal Herman AA, Sonzogni et al (2018) ENDF/B-VIII.0: the 8th major release of the nuclear reaction data library with CIELO-project cross sections, new standards and thermal scattering data. Nucl Data Sheets 148:1–142

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chakraborty S, Vimalnath KV, Lohar SP, Shetty P, Dash A (2014) On the practical aspects of large-scale production of 177Lu for peptide receptor radionuclide therapy using direct neutron activation of 176Lu in a medium flux research reactor: the Indian experience. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 302:233–243

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chatani H (2003) Measurement of the Westcott conventionality thermal neutron flux and suchlike at irradiation facilities of the KUR. In: JAERI-conf 2003-006, pp 241–246. https://doi.org/10.11484/JAERI-Conf-2003-006

  • Corte FD, Bellemans F, De Neve P, Simonits A (1994) The use of a modified Westcott-formalism in the k0-standardization of NAA: the state of affairs. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 179:93–109

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dash A, Pillai MRA, Knapp FF Jr (2015) Production of 177Lu for targeted radionuclide therapy: available options. Nucl Med Mol Imaging 49:85–107

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dvorakova Z (2007) Production and chemical processing of 177Lu fornuclear medicine at the Munich research reactor FRM-II. Thesis, Institut fur Radiochemie der Technischen Universitat Munchen, Munich

  • Genezini FA, Guilherme SZ, da Silva Paulo SC, Renata MN, Edson GM, Paulo SS (2019) On the feasilibility of producing Lu-177 in the IAE-R1 reactor via the direct route. In: 2019 international nuclear atlantic conference-INAC 2019. Santos, Brazil

  • Høgdahl OT (1962) Neutron absorption in pile neutron activation analysis. Department of Chemistry, Michigan Memorial Phoenix Energy Institute, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

    Google Scholar 

  • Holden NE (1993) Temperature dependence of the Westcott g-factor for neutron reactions in activation analysis. Pure Appl Chem 71(12):2309–2315

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • IAEA (n.d) Nuclear data services. Nuclear Data Section, International Atomic Energy Agency. https://www-nds.iaea.org/. Accessed 29 Sept 2020

  • Knapp FF Jr, Mirzadeh S, Beets AL, Du M (2005) Production of therapeutic radioisotopes in the ORNL High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) for applications in nuclear medicine, oncology and interventional cardiology. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 263:503–509

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Koning AJ, Rochman D, Sublet J-C, Dzysiuk N, Fleming M, van der Marck S (2019) TENDL: complete Nuclear Data Library for innovative nuclear science and technology. Nucl Data Sheets 155:1–55

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marleau G, Hebert A, Roy R (2014) A user guide for DRAGON version 5, Technical report IGE-335. Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal, Montreal

    Google Scholar 

  • Mikolajczak R, Parus JL, Pawlak D, Zakrzewska E, Michalak W, Sasinowska I (2003) Reactor produced 177Lu of specific activity and purity suitable for medical applications. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 257(1):53–57

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mughabghab SF (2003) Thermal neutron capture cross sections resonance integrals and G-factors. INDC(NDS)-440, International Atomic Energy Agency

  • Rana YS, Mishra A, Tej Singh PV, Varde S, Bhattacharya SS, Kumar R et al (2017) Life cycle reliability and safety engineering. Therm Neutron Flux Meas Self-Serve Tray Rod Facil Dhruva React 6:149–166

    Google Scholar 

  • Ryves TB (1969) A new thermal neutron flux convention. Metrologia 5(4):119–124

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Simonits A, De Corte F, Hoste J (1975) Single-comparator methods in reactor neutron activation analysis. J Radioanal Chem 24(1):31–46

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Singh T, Pandey P, Mazumdar T, Singh K, Raina VK (2013) Physics design of 2 MW upgraded apsara research reactor. Ann Nucl Energy 60:141–156

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Singh T, Pandey P, Rana YS, Varde PV, Bhattacharya S, Prasad S, Sharma R (2017) Estimation and measurement of Mo99 activity in natural molybdenum metal and oxide sample irradiated in Dhruva ( BARC/2017/E/001). BARC, External, Mumbai

  • Tarasov VA, Andreev OI, Romanov EG, Kuznetsov RA, Kupriyanov VV, Tselishchev IV (2015) Production of no-carrier added Lutetium-177 by irradiation of enriched Yetterbium-176. Curr Radiopharm 8:95–106

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Verheijke ML (1994) Relation between the høgdahl convention and the modified Westcott formalism for (n,γ) reactions with a pure 1/v n cross-section behavior. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 183(2):293–299

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Westcott CH, Walker WH, Alexander TK (1958) Effective cross sections and cadmium ratios for the neutron spectra of thermal reactors. In: Proc. 2nd int. conf. peaceful use of atomic energy, Geneva, New York

  • Zhernosekov KP, Perego RC, Dvorakova Z, Henkelmann R, Tuler A (2008) Target burnup corrected specific activity of 177Lu produced via 176(n, g)177Lu nuclear reactions. Appl Radiat Isot 66:1218–1220

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We are thankful to Shri C. G. Karhadkar, Director, Reactor Group and Shri H. G. Gujar, Head, RRSD, RG. We are also grateful to Shri Paritosh Pandey of Reactor Physics and Nuclear Engineering Section, RRSD for providing technical support. We are thankful to Reactor Operation Division, especially to Shri Vikas Jain, for providing us the reactor power profile during the irradiation of LuCl3 samples and details of their irradiation schedule.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Reactor Physics and Nuclear Engineering Section, Research Reactor Services Division, Reactor Group, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai, 400085, India

    Tej Singh, Shantanab Banerjee & Abhishek Mishra

  2. Radiochemicals Section, Radio Pharmaceutical Division, Radiochemistry and Isotope Group, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai, 400085, India

    Sudipta Chakraborty & Rubel Chakravarty

Authors
  1. Tej Singh
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Shantanab Banerjee
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Abhishek Mishra
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Sudipta Chakraborty
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Rubel Chakravarty
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Shantanab Banerjee.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Singh, T., Banerjee, S., Mishra, A. et al. Estimation of 177Lu activity produced from direct and indirect routes in Indian research reactors. Life Cycle Reliab Saf Eng 11, 219–228 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41872-022-00197-0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41872-022-00197-0

Keywords

Search

Navigation