Production of Medical Isotopes With Electron Linacs

Radioisotopes play important roles in numerous areas ranging from medical treatments to national security and basic research. Radionuclide production technology for medical applications has been pursued since the early 1900s both commercially and in nuclear science centers. Many medical isotopes are now in routine production and are used in day-to-day medical procedures. Despite these advancements, research is accelerating around the world to improve the existing production methodologies as well as to develop novel radionuclides for new medical applications. Electron linear accelerators (linacs) are unique sources of radioisotopes. Even though the basic technology has been around for decades, only recently have electron linacs capable of producing photons with sufficient energy and flux for radioisotope production become available. Housed in Argonne National Laboratory's building 211 is a newly upgraded 50 MeV/30-kW electron linear accelerator, capable of producing a wide range of radioisotopes. This talk will focus on the work being performed for the production of the medical isotopes 99Mo (99Mo/99mTc generator), 67Cu, and 47Sc.