Investigation of the thermal performance of natCu target for 63Zn production

Abstract The flow rate of coolant and the particle beam current are important when high beam current irradiations are intended for production of radionuclides. The beam current on nat Cu target to produce 63 Zn via the nat Cu(p,n) 63 Zn reaction was investigated and the beam current was obtained more than 350 μA that is the maximum allowed beam current used for producing medical radioisotopes in Nuclear Science and Technology Research Institute of Iran. In addition, the temperature distribution on the target under the different cooling water flow rates has been simulated based on finite element analysis program. The results show that the cooling water flow rate can be brought down to 1.5 L/min without the risk of melting of target material and boiling water.