PRELIMINARY TEST OF 123 I PRODUCTION WITH PROTON INDUCED REACTION

1. Catania-PTCOG 2002 PRELIMINARY TEST OF 123I PRODUCTION WITH PROTON INDUCED REACTION S. Lo Nigro2,3), G.A.P. Cirrone1,3), G. Cuttone1), P.A. Lojacono2), I.V. Patti1), L. Raffaele1), M.G. Sabini1) V. Salamone1,), L.M. Valastro3) 1) INFN-Laboratori Nazionali del Sud – Via S. Sofia 44, Catania (Italy) 2) Centro Siciliano di Fisica Nucleare e Struttura della Materia – Corso Italia 57, Catania (Italy) 3) Dipartimento di Fisica, Università degli Studi di Catania – Corso Italia 57, Catania (Italy) Use of Radioisotopes in Nuclear Medicine Ideal Physics Characteristics of Radioisopes • Carrier Free • Short Effective T1/2 •  Emitted Energy 100 – 300 keV In Vivo In Vitro • Diagnostic • Radiotherapy Our initial attention has been devoted to the 123I production mainly looking at its high interest for nuclear medicine applications. In this work a preliminary test of 123I production has been realized, irradiating some targets of 124Te evaporated on aluminum backing. The used reaction is 124Te(p,2n)123I, the targets were irradiated at different energies, obtaining the best activity for 123I at 23 MeV, as you can see in the follows graphic and table. Energy (MeV) Activity 123I (Bq) 23 156.81  3.76 62 5.43  0.13 15 122.44  2.82 45 18.11  0.45 In the framework of the CATANA project an R&D program is under development studying the optimal condition for the production of radioisotopes of medical interest with nuclear reactions induced by high energy protons. Particularly proton beam produced by the INFN-LNS Superconducting Cyclotron has been used. The -spectra, acquired with a HP-Ge detector, shows the radiochemistry purity of our target. Conclusions Irradiation with 23 MeV proton beam from a cyclotron is ideal for the production of 123I with the reaction 124Te(p,2n)123I. A beam current 100 A and irradiation time of about two hours are necessary to obtain a routine production (150 MBq) of 123I.