Medical radioisotopes activation in the JRC cyclotron-driven INBARCA neutron activator

A compact, accelerator driven, neutron activator based on a modified version of the Adiabatic Resonance Crossing (ARC) concept has been developed, with the aim of efficiently utilising ion-beam generated neutrons for the production of radioactive nanoparticles for brachytherapy. The facility has been tested under various experimental configurations, and the activation yields of different materials, measured with ¿-spectrometry techniques, have been compared with those of our Monte Carlo (MCNPX, FLUKA) simulations. In particular two version of the activator were tested: a lead-graphite and an all-graphite configuration. Experimental results, in agreement with Monte Carlo calculations, showed that higher activation rates (factor 1.7) are obtained for the isotopes of interest (166Ho (T1/2=26.8h), 186Re(T1/2=3.7d) and 188Re (T1/2=0.71d)) as a result of the improved neutron moderation/confinement effects of the all-graphite configuration.

MACIOCCO L.;  BUONO S.;  ABBAS Kamel;  COTOGNO Giulio;  GIBSON Peter;  SIMONELLI Federica;  TAGZIRIA Hamid;  BURGIO N.;  SANTAGATA A;  MERCURIO Giovanni;  TALAB J.;  BILLOTEY C.; 

2010-01-21

SPRINGER

JRC56479

1619-7070,   

https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC56479,