Production of 123I (NaI) radiopharmaceutical via xenon gas target, using NRCAM cyclotron

Full text: Iodine-123 is one of the most famous radioisotopes, used in nuclear medicine. Among the various types of nuclear reactions for 123I production the following reactions is favored due to absence of 124I and 125I impurities: 124 Xe(P,2n)55123 Cs 5.9min / β+54123 Xe 2.08hr / β+53123I ..... and ..... I124Xe(P,pn)54123 Xe 2.08 / β+53123I In this project we produced 123I using above reactions. 124Xe enriched gas target was employed. Some important issues must be taken into account when using gas targets, such as: 1) Released energy from the proton beam during penetration through the gas target produces the heat followed by increase the average temperature and pressure of the gas. 2) The multiple scattering produced by proton collision with Xe molecules causes scattering through various angles. 3) Cross-section investigation is essential for nuclear reactions. Energy and range of optimized energy must be determined to obtain the best yield with lowest impurities. Reduction of proton energy, temperature and pressure increase, multiple scattering, optimized bombardment energy determination and non-uniformity of density gradient, all must be taken into account when a suitable target is designed in this project. Investigation of gaseous target behavior during proton irradiation at high currents is performed. As a result, an optimized target for I-123 production has been manufactured. (author)