Speaker
Dr
Lina Quintieri
(ENEA Centro Ricerche della Casaccia)
Description
99mTc (T1/2 = 6.0067(10) h), an isomer of 99Tc emitting -ray with energy E=140 keV, is among the most widely used radionuclides for diagnosis in nuclear medicine (NM). In this context, Europe is the second largest consumer of 99mTc, accounting for more than 20% of the global market.
A severe supply crisis of 99Mo production arose in 2008-2009, due to the aging of nuclear reactors (presently the main providers of 99mTc), highlighting the fragility of the current production chain for this important medical radionuclide. Since then, a worldwide interest in investigating alternative methods to produce 99mTc for short, medium and long term period has been clearly manifested.
Among the most promising accelerator driven techniques, a particular interest has been recently focused, respectively, on the 99Mo photoproduction method by means of high energy electron beams and the (n,2n) reaction based one with 14 MeV neutron beams (both using enriched 100Mo targets).
These two alternative methods are analyzed and compared in the presented work: Monte Carlo predictions (based on FLUKA code) of the 99Mo activity achievable on optimized targets have been obtained for several experimental configurations and reasonable duty cycles. Moreover, the comparison of the predicted 99Mo activities with the respective experimental values obtained irradiating natural Molybdenum samples at the 14 MeV Frascati Neutron Generator (FNG) facility of the ENEA-Frascati Research Center, and at the DAΦNE Beam Test Facility (BTF) of INFN-LNF is analysed and discussed for benchmarking purposes. In fact, all the activity measurements were carried out at a high metrological level.
In addition to the nuclear analysis, some preliminary thermo-physical considerations, related to the maximum beam power deposition in the target, to assess a reliable operative configuration and define a realistic 99Mo production cycle are also introduced and compared for both cases.
Summary
Investigation of the 99Mo/99mTc production by the most promising accelerated driven methodologies (based on 14 MeV neutron beams and high energy electron beam, respectively): validation of predictions against measurements.
Primary authors
Dr
Antonino Pietropaolo
(ENEA Centro Ricerche di Frascati)
Dr
Lina Quintieri
(ENEA Centro Ricerche della Casaccia)
Dr
Marco Capogni
(Enea Centro Ricerche della Casaccia)
Co-authors
Mr
Aldo Fazio
(ENEA Centro Ricerche della Casaccia)
Dr
Aldo Pizzuto
(Enea Centro Ricerche di Frascati)
Dr
Bruno Buonomo
(INFN Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati)
Dr
Carlo Di Giulio
(INFN Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati)
Dr
Luca Foggetta
(INFN Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati)
Dr
Mario Pillon
(ENEA Centro Ricerche di Frascati)
Dr
Paolo Valente
(INFN sezione di Roma)
Dr
Pierino De Felice
(ENEA Centro Ricerche della Casaccia)
