Production scheme for diagnostic-therapeutic radioisotopes by accelerator neutrons.

Interest has been growing in the development of medical radioisotopes used for noninvasive nuclear medicine imaging of disease and cancer therapy. Especially the development of an alternative production scheme of 99Mo, the mother radioisotope of 99mTc used for imaging, is required, because the current supply chain of the reactor product 99Mo is fragile worldwide. We have proposed a new production scheme of 99Mo as well as therapeutic radioisotopes, such as 64Cu and 67Cu, using accelerator neutrons provided by the natC(d,n) reaction. Based on this scheme we have obtained high-quality 99mTc, 64Cu, and 67Cu suitable for clinical use by developing both production and separation methods of the radioisotopes. We proposed a new facility to constantly and reliably produce a wide variety of high-quality, carrier-free radioisotopes, including 99Mo, with accelerator neutrons. We report on the development of the proposed scheme and future prospects of the facility toward the domestic production of medical radioisotopes.