Excitation functions and production of arsenic radioisotopes for environmental toxicology and biomedical purposes.

Many arsenic radionuclides have come to be used as tracers in biology and in the study of environmental pollution of both water and soil. In nuclear medicine, radioactive 74 As has been employed as a positron emitter for the localization of brain tumors, cerebral occlusive vascular lesions, arterious-venous malformations, etc. The aim of the work described has been to study the excitation functions for the production of the arsenic radioisotopes from targets of natural germanium via nuclear reactions ( p, xn ).