Iodine-123 production for radiopharmaceuticals

The excitation functions for the 124Te(p, 2n)123I and 124Te(p, n)124I reactions were determined with thin films of 99.87% and 91.86% isotopically enriched 124Te. The production rates and the optimum fractions of the excitation functions for obtaining the maximum radiochemical purity of 123I with the different isotopic enrichments of 124Te were established. The 124Te(p, 2n)123I reaction on ultrahigh enrichment 124Tc is a satisfactory and economical production method on cyclotrons with particle energies or beam intensities too low to produce 123Xe as a source of high purity 123I. (author)