Radio-isotope production from medical cyclotrons and safety issues

Radioisotopes are very widely used in medical applications, especially for nuclear imaging of body organs and for treatment of certain type of cancers. Positron Emission Tomography (PET) is fast emerging as new technology which finds wide applications in nuclear medicine. Medical cyclotrons are used for the production of short lived PET isotopes like ¹⁸F, ¹¹C, ¹³N, ¹⁵O etc. Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre, Kolkata is setting up a medical cyclotron for the production of such short-lived isotopes. The talk will describe the project in brief and the radiological safety issues associated with it. (author)