Radioisotope production at the Kazakhstan cyclotron

Abstract

Cyclotrons play an important role for production of ‘carrier-free’ radioisotopes for various applications in the nuclear medicine, industry, ecology and science. Kazakhstan variable energy isochronous cyclotron, K = 50 MeV, is a 150 cm compact-pole 3 sector positive ion machine. It generates different beams of light ions: protons 6-30 MeV, deuterons 12.5-25 MeV, 3He-ions 18.5-62 MeV, alpha-particles 25-50 MeV. In the last years the cyclotron is rather intensively used for radioisotopes production to meet the needs of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The main users of radioisotope products are the Institutions of Healthcare Ministry and enterprises of oil-chemistry, metallurgy, mining, scientific institutes etc. In this submission a survey on radionuclides production including 201Tl, 67Ga, 57Co, 109Cd, 88Y, 85Sr is presented. Practically at all production stages (target preparation, extraction, purification and concentration of a product) original approaches were realized: (1) at target production by means of electrolysis the modes of reverse plating of the material for irradiation and technological layers were finalized, and at 67Ga production new extraction with better characteristics were used; that made the deeper purification from zinc, copper and iron possible. At the development of the technologies of the sealed sources production the following results were obtained: (1) 109Cd production for X-ray fluorescence analysis, and production of experimental samples for Mossbauer sources 57Co at rhodium and palladium backings. The tracers 237Pu, 88Y and 85Sr used for development of the set of methods for 239Pu, 240Pu, 90Sr and 241Am determination in the samples from Semipalatinsk Test Site were produced via nuclear reactions with alpha-particles on 235U and protons on 88Sr, 85Rb targets. Produced radiopharmaceutical preparations 201Tl chloride and 67Ga citrate are supplied to medical centers of Almaty.