Production of Polonium-208, 209 and 210 for use in nuclear battery via particle accelerator

Abstract

Nuclear reaction processes are used for the production of energetic 208,209,210Po nuclei from Pb and Bi targets with particle accelerators, instead of the production with a nuclear reactor, for use in the nuclear battery and radioisotope thermoelectric generator technologies. The cross-section curves, simulated activity and yields of product of each reaction process were calculated under particular conditions, including 24 h of irradiation with a particle beam current of 1 mA for the energy range Eparticle = 200 → 1 MeV. Based on the calculated and simulated results, to produce 208,209,210Po nuclei, the appropriate target nuclei, nuclear reaction processes, and energy region of reactions were discussed by comparing the obtained results with the experimental data of literature and TENDL database in detail.