Selenium-72 formation via nat Br(p,x) induced by 100 MeV protons: steps towards a novel 72Se/72As generator system

B Ballard; D Wycoff; E R Birnbaum; K D John; J W Lenz; S S Jurisson; C S Cutler; F M Nortier; W A Taylor; M E Fassbender

doi:10.1016/j.apradiso.2012.01.018

Selenium-72 formation via nat Br(p,x) induced by 100 MeV protons: steps towards a novel 72Se/72As generator system

Appl Radiat Isot. 2012 Apr;70(4):595-601. doi: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2012.01.018. Epub 2012 Feb 1.

Authors

B Ballard¹, D Wycoff, E R Birnbaum, K D John, J W Lenz, S S Jurisson, C S Cutler, F M Nortier, W A Taylor, M E Fassbender

Affiliation

¹ Chemistry Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA.

PMID: 22326368
DOI: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2012.01.018

Abstract

Selenium-72 production by the proton bombardment of a natural NaBr target has been successfully demonstrated at the Los Alamos National Laboratory Isotope Production Facility (LANL-IPF). Arsenic-72 (half life 26 h) is a medium-lived positron emitting radionuclide with the major advantage of being formed as the daughter of another "generator" radioisotope (Se-72, 8.5 d). A (72)Se/(72)As generator would be the preferred mechanism for clinical utilization of (72)As for positron emission tomography (PET). No portable (72)Se/(72)As generator system has been demonstrated for convenient, repeated (72)As elution ("milking"). In this work, we describe (72)Se production and recovery from irradiated NaBr targets using a 100 MeV proton beam. We also introduce an (72)As generator principle based on (72)Se chelation followed by liquid-liquid extraction, which will be transferred to a solid-phase sorption/elution system.