| 2010-10-21 12:44:06 |
The Alikhanyan National Lab Makes Another Step in the Isotope Production Activities
Duringspring 2010 a new metallic cathode with high emission properties has beeninstalled in an electron gun of 40 MeV linear accelerator (Linac, usedpreviously as injector for the 6 GeV electron synchrotron). The first testsdemonstrated the high quality of theelectron beam parameters (Electron current Ie~10 μA,Electron maximal energy Ee=40 MeV,beam spot ~10 mm andrather low angular divergence).
Figure1. Electron gun with a new cathode
The investigation of the 99mTc (the isotope used in most popular nuclear scanner SPECT) production rate were performed using electron beam incident on the target of 3.5 g of MoO3 during ~110 hours under average current 9.5 μA.
Then another target, namely natural Xe, has been irradiated by the same beam for the production of the important isotope 123I.The irradiated material has been packed in a stainless still container under ~250 bar pressure. Irradiation time was 13 hours, and then the 123I extraction procedures were executed.
Energy spectra for all irradiated materials have been measured during ~5 days to see thetime dependence of activity to estimate the actual doze of obtained isotopes.
For the accurate measurements of the beam profile the Vibrating Wire Scanner methodology was successfully applied allowing the beam size to measure with very high accuracy (see Fig.2).
Figure2.Vertical scan of beam spot sizeGaussian fit parameters: mean value 37.1 mm and variance 3.4 mm are presented in magenta.