Generation of radioisotopes with accelerator neutrons by deuterons

重水素加速器中性子を用いた放射性同位体の製造

永井 泰樹; 橋本 和幸; 初川 雄一; 佐伯 秀也; 本石 章司; 園田 望; 川端 方子; 原田 秀郎   ; 金 政浩*; 塚田 和明  ; 佐藤 哲也   ; 湊 太志   ; 岩本 修  ; 岩本 信之  ; 関 洋治; 横山 堅二; 椎名 孝行*; 太田 朗生*; 竹内 宣博*; 河内 幸正*; 佐藤 典仁*; 山林 尚道*; 足達 芳嗣*; 菊地 雄司*; 密本 俊典*; 五十嵐 隆*

Nagai, Yasuki; Hashimoto, Kazuyuki; Hatsukawa, Yuichi; Saeki, Hideya; Motoishi, Shoji; Sonoda, Nozomi; Kawabata, Masako; Harada, Hideo; Kin, Tadahiro*; Tsukada, Kazuaki; Sato, Tetsuya; Minato, Futoshi; Iwamoto, Osamu; Iwamoto, Nobuyuki; Seki, Yohji; Yokoyama, Kenji; Shiina, Takayuki*; Ota, Akio*; Takeuchi, Nobuhiro*; Kawauchi, Yukimasa*; Sato, Norihito*; Yamabayashi, Hisamichi*; Adachi, Yoshitsugu*; Kikuchi, Yuji*; Mitsumoto, Toshinori*; Igarashi, Takashi*

A new system proposed for the generation of radioisotopes with accelerator neutrons by deuterons (GRAND) is described by mainly discussing the production of Mo used for nuclear medicine diagnosis. A prototype facility of this system consists of a cyclotron to produce intense accelerator neutrons from the C(d,n) reaction with 40 MeV 2 mA deuteron beams, and a sublimation system to separate Tc from an irradiated MoO sample. About 9.7 TBq/week of Mo is produced by repeating irradiation on an enriched Mo sample (251g) with accelerator neutrons three times for two days. It meets about 10% of the Mo demand in Japan. The characteristic feature of the system lies in its capability to reliably produce a wide range of high-quality, carrier-free, carrier-added radioisotopes with a minimum level of radioactive wastes without using uranium. The system is compact in size, and easy to operate; therefore it could be used worldwide to produce radioisotopes for medical, research, and industrial applications.