An alumina ceramic target vessel for the remote production of metallic radionuclides by in situ target dissolution.
BACKGROUND
As the use of metallic radionuclides increases, so does the demand for a simple production method. In this study, we demonstrated an in situ target processing concept for automated metallic radionuclide production without the use of any robotic device.


METHODS
An alumina ceramic vessel for a vertical irradiation system was designed and developed. The ceramic vessel was evaluated by the production of Zr-89 using an yttrium powder target. The irradiated Y was dissolved remotely in HCl in the ceramic vessel and transferred as a solution to a hotcell through a Teflon tube. The crude Zr-89 was then purified by an automated apparatus. The Zr-89 was eluted with 100 μL of oxalic acid (solution) as the final product.


RESULTS
The ceramic vessel gave a sufficient yield of Zr-89 (57±11MBq/μAh), showed good operability, and could be reused up to 10 times. With nominal irradiation (10μA×2h) in ~90 μL, the product (~940MBq) was obtained with >99.9% radionuclidic purity.


CONCLUSIONS
The combination of the ceramic vessel and vertical irradiation has great potential for the remote production of various metallic radionuclides.
Molecular Imaging Center, National Institute of Radiological Sciences, 4-9-1 Anagawa, Inage, Chiba 263-8555, Japan. nagatsu@nirs.go.jp
Kotaro
K
Nagatsu
Hisashi
H
Suzuki
Masami
M
Fukada
Katsuyuki
K
Minegishi
Atsushi
A
Tsuji
Toshimitsu
T
Fukumura
D000537:Aluminum Oxide / Q000737:chemistry*; D011854:Radiochemistry / Q000295:instrumentation*; D011868:Radioisotopes / Q000737:chemistry*; D012996:Solutions; D015019:Yttrium / Q000737:chemistry; D015040:Zirconium / Q000737:chemistry*
D011868:Radioisotopes; D012996:Solutions; D015019:Yttrium; D015040:Zirconium; D000537:Aluminum Oxide