Bulletin of the American Physical Society
2020 Fall Meeting of the APS Division of Nuclear Physics
Volume 65, Number 12
Thursday–Sunday, October 29–November 1 2020; Time Zone: Central Time, USA
Session RJ: Isotope Production at Nucear Physics Facilities |
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Chair: Paul Gueye, MSU-NSCL/FRIB |
Sunday, November 1, 2020 8:30AM - 8:42AM |
RJ.00001: Harvesting isotopes at the NSCL/FRIB-- 47 Ca, 62 Zn, and 76 Kr Gregory Severin, Katharina Domnanich, Chirag Vyas, Paige Abel, Hannah Clause, Scott Essenmacher, Samridhi Satija, Colton Kalman, Wesley Walker, Chloe Kleinfeldt The nature of rare isotope production at FRIB provides an opportunity to collect, or “harvest”, by- product radionuclides from FRIB cooling systems and accelerator components. We have created a beam dump for the FRIB’s predecessor, NSCL, which allows us to practice harvesting ahead of FRIB commissioning. So far we have been able to extract multiple radionuclides from the beam dump’s heavy-ion irradiated water with high efficiency, and then have chemically purified them to obtain radionuclidicly pure samples. Our focus-radionuclides in preliminary tests are 47 Ca, 62 Zn, and 76 Kr owing to the medical relevance of their progeny, and we have used them to generate pure samples of 47 Sc, 62 Cu, and 76 Br respectively. Many additional nuclides will become available as FRIB comes online, with applications in nuclear astrophysics, materials science, horticulture and other fields. Ideally, the harvesting process will extend the user-base of FRIB and enable new multi-user capabilities at the facility. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, November 1, 2020 8:42AM - 8:54AM |
RJ.00002: Harvesting Rare Isotopes for Accelerator Target Preparation John Greene, Matthew Gott, Benjamin Kay, Gregory Severin The use of accelerator targets in nuclear physics experiments relies heavily on the availability of highly enriched isotope for their successful preparation; normally employing stable compounds as these can be widely supplied. For the more difficult experiments requiring studies far from stability, radioactive beams have been exploited, provided by newly planned as well as existing facilities. In the realm of super-heavy element production, targets of the sometimes rare actinide species are necessary, these being available in only small quantities. For major new experimental initiatives, the limits of what reactions are accessible are increasingly relying on the availability of radioactive targets. These can be prepared from long-lived species where enough starting material can be produced. However, under the auspices of isotope harvesting at FRIB enough target material, even with short half-lives, may be produced in amounts which could be separated and fashioned into accelerator targets for further experiments. Some examples with be presented. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, November 1, 2020 8:54AM - 9:06AM |
RJ.00003: Developing isotope production capabilities with heavy-ion beams at Texas A&M University Lauren McIntosh, Jon Burns, Laura McCann, Gabriel Tabacaru, Evgeny Tereshatov, Amy Vonder Haar, Sherry Yennello, Samuel Ferran, Suzy Lapi, Sean McGuinness, Graham Peaslee, John Wilkinson, Kendall Barrett, Jon Engle Alpha emitting radionuclides with medically relevant half-lives are of interest to the medical community for treating malignant disease because they deposit large amounts of energy close to the location of the decaying nucleus. Some radionuclides of interest are available via low energy protons or reactor neutrons. However, some of the most promising radionuclides are inaccessible via these conventional routes and require more exotic incident particle beams or energies. Production and supply of these unique radionuclides is difficult due to the limited number of facilities with production capabilities, including the aforementioned accelerated heavy-ion beams or the requisite targetry and radiochemistry expertise to isolate components of interest. The Cyclotron Institute of Texas A&M has this expertise and is using its K150 cyclotron to explore the production of many radionuclides of medical interest. A program is being developed to focus on production of alpha emitters, and preliminary studies of At-211 and Tb-149 production have been performed. These results and future directions will be discussed, with an emphasis on current capabilities. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, November 1, 2020 9:06AM - 9:18AM |
RJ.00004: Simulating the effect of Ultra-high Dose Rate on DNA Strand Break Daniel Mulrow, Natalia Guitierrez, John-Stephen Taylor, Lee Sobotka Ultra-high dose rate radiation therapy, which is orders of magnitude faster than conventional therapy, has recently regained interest in the field of Radiation Oncology. Irradiating tissue at these ultra-high rates has shown a normal tissue sparing effect, termed FLASH, when compared to conventional dose rates in pre-clinical trials. Not all studies involving ultra-high dose rates have produced a normal tissue sparing effect which has resulted in the debate of the FLASH phenomenon. Other works have compared the mean dose rate, the total dose, and the oxygen-dependency required to observe the FLASH effect. This work looks to compare the literature based on the dose delivered in a single pulse, i.e. instantaneous dose rate, and the biological endpoint of interest. Further analysis was performed by simulating DNA strand breaking to better understand certain biological endpoints with respect to instantaneous dose rate. Through this lens we aim to provide a chemical description to bridge the physical and the biological limitations of these studies. In doing so we hope to find trends among the existing literature to assess the feasibility of FLASH radiation therapy and to better guide future studies. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, November 1, 2020 9:18AM - 9:30AM |
RJ.00005: High precision gamma-ray spectroscopy for enhancing the production and use of medical radioisotopes E.A. McCutchan, S. Zhu, A.A. Sonzogni, M.P. Carpenter, M.D. Gott, J.P. Greene, P. Bender, E.J. Gass Precise knowledge of the radiation emitted by radioactive isotopes is needed in both the production and use of medical isotopes. The decay of many isotopes now being considered for use in nuclear medicine were last studied more than 30 years ago using very simple detector setups and without this particular function in mind. The field of gamma-ray spectroscopy has made tremendous advances in the subsequent decades, with multiple HPGe detectors employing Compton-suppression and high efficiency gamma-gamma coincidence spectroscopy. In the present work, we make use of these techniques to significantly improve the knowledge of decay schemes of several isotopes being considered for nuclear medicine. An overview of results on a number of isotopes will be presented including studies of the emerging PET imaging isotopes, $^{72}$As and $^{61}$Cu. New decay schemes will be presented and their impact on the production and use of the isotope will be discussed. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, November 1, 2020 9:30AM - 9:42AM |
RJ.00006: Isolation of $^{\mathrm{211}}$At from bismuth target in nitric acid media using hydrophobic organic solvents Amy Vonder Haar, E.E. Tereshatov, J.D. Burns, L. McCann, L.A. McIntosh, G. Tabacaru, S.J. Yennello Astatine-211 is a promising nuclide for medical applications with a 7.2 h half-life and 5.9 MeV $\alpha $-emission. It has been produced at the Texas A{\&}M University Cyclotron Institute via irradiation of metallic bismuth in the reaction $^{\mathrm{209}}$Bi($\alpha $, 2n)$^{\mathrm{211}}$At using a 28.8 MeV $\alpha $-particle beam. To harvest $^{\mathrm{211}}$At, the target is dissolved in HNO$_{\mathrm{3}}$ and the $^{\mathrm{211}}$At extracted via liquid-liquid extraction. Removal of target impurities is of critical medical relevance. A suitable solvent must extract the desired $^{\mathrm{211}}$At while leaving behind harmful contamination. Traditional solvents have been used to extract $^{\mathrm{211}}$At from the target solution including ether, alcohols, and ketones to explore the effect of changing functional groups. Greener solvents including methyl anthranilate, and hydrophobic liquid binary mixtures consisting of combinations of methyl anthranilate, ibuprofen, and lidocaine have also been explored, as well as the effects of oxidizing or reducing agents. For each solvent system, the partition of $^{\mathrm{211}}$At and bismuth, tracked as $^{\mathrm{207}}$Bi, between aqueous and organic phases has been measured and summarized in distribution ratio curves as a function of initial HNO$_{\mathrm{3}}$ concentration. These curves provide insight into the efficacy of extraction. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, November 1, 2020 9:42AM - 10:18AM |
RJ.00007: The Development of PET Generator Systems at the Brookhaven Linac Isotope Producer. Invited Speaker: Vanessa Sanders The Medical Isotope Research and Production (MIRP) team utilizes the 66-220 MeV incident beam Brookhaven Linac Isotope Producer (BLIP) to produce novel and routinely used medical isotopes. This high-energy particle accelerator is only one of a few facilities in the country that can produce such a wide range of isotopes. The unique energies and high current enable us to produce diagnostic and therapeutic isotopes of interest for noninvasive detection and treatment of disease. At BNL we are interested in the high-energy proton production of positron emitters for use in Positron Emission Tomography (PET) diagnostic applications. One isotope of interest is arsenic-72 ($^{\mathrm{72}}$As), a potential radionuclide for antibody-based PET due to its excellent physical properties. These optimal characteristics include an appropriate half-life of 26 hours, which matches well with the biological half-life of monoclonal antibodies. Another PET isotope of interest is scandium-44 ($^{\mathrm{44}}$Sc, t$_{\mathrm{1/2}}=$ 3.9 h), a shorter-lived radionuclide that matches well with the biological half-life of small biomolecules and has high potential of aiding in therapeutic response. Both radionuclides are also promising due to their increased availabilities through the use of generator systems. Within these systems the long-lived parent is loaded onto a solid support which can be transported and the isotope of interest ($^{\mathrm{72}}$As, $^{\mathrm{44}}$Sc) is eluted. Here, we discuss the developments we have made in the production of $^{\mathrm{72}}$As, and $^{\mathrm{44}}$Sc.. [Preview Abstract] |
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