Production of Curie quantities of high purity I-123 with 15 MeV protons.

Using the technology described for electrodeposition of elemental tellurium, it is possible to bombard a target with 2 kW of proton beam power without significant loss of radio iodine. If Te-123 enriched to 96% is used as target material, the I-123 yield would be about 1 Curie with a 0.23% I-124 impurity for a 2-h bomardment with 130 muA of 15 MeV protons. The same I-124 impurity level can be maintained with a lower enrichment of Te-123 by reducing the proton energy to 11.5 meV, but with a consequent reduction in I-123 yield.