1. Limitation of the long-lived Te-121 contaminant in production of I-123 through the Xe-124(p,x) route
- Author
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Hermanne, Alex, Tarkanyi, Ferenc, Takacs, Sandor, Rebeles, R.a., Ignatyuk, A.v., Spellerberg, S., Schweikert, R., and Applied Physics and Photonics
- Subjects
SYSTEM ,YIELDS ,MODEL ,HIGHLY ENRICHED XE-124 ,EXCITATION-FUNCTIONS ,CROSS-SECTIONS ,PROTON ,CYCLOTRON ,INDUCED NUCLEAR-REACTIONS - Abstract
The 13.2 h half-life radioisotope I-123 is widely used in clinical nuclear medicine diagnosis. At present it is mostly produced in nca form by proton irradiation of highly enriched Xe-124 in dedicated gas target set-ups and relying on the decay chain Cs-123-Xe-123-I-123. Depending on the irradiation conditions contamination with long-lived Te-121, a daughter product of the co-produced rather short lived I-121, occurs and can limit the useful shelf life of the I-123 solution. Excitation function of the Xe-124(p,alpha)I-121, Xe-124(p,2n)Cs-123 and Xe-124(p,2p)Xe-123 reactions are measured up to 35 MeV using the stacked gas cell technique and high-resolution gamma-ray spectrometry. The experimental data were compared with the earlier literature values, with new results of the ALICE-IPPE and EMPIRE-II codes and with the data taken from the TENDL-2009 database. Existing discrepancies in cross-section data are largely solved and new recommended values are proposed. From fits to the new excitation curves integral I-123 batch yields and Te-121 contaminations for realistic production conditions are derived. Optimization of irradiation and cooling times and energy degradation in the target can strongly influence the contamination level. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
- Published
- 2011