Irradiation methods for production of high specific activity radionuclides in no carrier added form

Abstract

High Specific Activity Radio-Nuclides (HSARN) are a powerful tool to label a large range of chemical species at very low concentration levels. In order to obtain these radiotracers in a very high specific activity form, it is necessary to optimize the production methods, to separate and purify them from the irradiated target without the addition of inactive carrier, to carry out a series of analytical and radioanalytical tests to determine their “true” specific activity and to verify a series of purity parameters. A review of irradiation methods and nuclear parameters adopted in our laboratories for the preparation of some tens of radiotracers are presented.