Innovatory production of radioisotopes 117mSn, 186Re and 188Re for laboratory tests and the future application in nuclear medicine

Abstract

In this work, innovatory production of three radioisotopes 117mSn, 186Re and 188Re, which can be used in nuclear medicine, is described. The natural tin and rhenium targets were irradiated by a high-energy 20 MV X-ray therapeutic beam from a medical linear accelerator. Additionally, the targets were in the photoneutron field. The radioisotopes were obtained in photonuclear and neutron reactions. A special lead-PMMA system was used to increase the slowed-down neutron flux in the target volume. The specific activities of 117mSn, 186Re and 188Re are 11 kBq/g, 2.6 MBq/g and 0.26 MBq/g in the saturation state, respectively. The produced amounts of the radioisotopes of tin and rhenium are sufficient for various laboratory tests in nuclear medicine.