Abstract
Radiation safety for patients during positron emission tomography (PET) procedures is affected by the amount of radioactive impurities generated during production of fluorine-18 (18F) radionuclide. In this investigation, the dependence of 18F production yield and radioactive impurities on proton irradiation dose is discussed. Enriched water (H2O18) target was bombarded perpendicularly by 11-MeV proton beams at various proton doses. Experimental results indicated that the 18F radioactivity yield and the amount of 56Co and Ag110m radioactive impurities depend strongly on the proton dose. In the proton dose range between 2 μAhr and 20 μAhr, the radioactive impurities increased with increasing proton dose. There was no significant difference in the radioactivity yield of both 56Co and Ag110m impurities at low proton dose between 2 and 10 μAhr. However a huge difference was recorded when the dose was increased above 10 μAhr. The experimental data can be used to predict the amount of impurities generated during 18F production at proton dose of higher than 20 μAhr.
Highlights
Current nuclear methods in medical and industrial radioisotope production have been mostly involving nuclear reactors and circular accelerators
Two radioactive impurities (56Co and 110mAg) found in the postirradiated water target following 18F production have been measured for their radioactivities
Experimental results indicate that the radioactivities depend strongly on the proton beam dose
Summary
Current nuclear methods in medical and industrial radioisotope production have been mostly involving nuclear reactors and circular accelerators. Subatomic particles such as neutron, proton, deuteron, 3He, 4He, and other heavier particles are generated and accelerated to certain energies sufficient for production of radioisotopes. Deuteron particles accelerated in circular accelerators or cyclotrons have been recently employed to produce short-lived medical radioisotopes such as 44mSc, 44gSc, 155Tb, and 161Tb [3, 4], whereas 3He particles have been suggested for production of 44m,46m+g,47,48Sc, 48V, and 48Cr radioisotopes [5]. Proton beams generated from cyclotrons have been widely employed to produce radionuclides relevant for medical applications [6,7,8] as well as materials studies [9, 10]. Research on theoretical and experimental aspects of 18F production using small cyclotrons has been carried out elsewhere to study the optimum target system and irradiation parameters [13], radioactive by-products in the cyclotron vicinity [14], and identification of radioactive impurities [15]
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