Speaker
Description
Isotopes research and production department at A. Alikhanyan National Science Laboratory (AANL) develops production technologies for Ga, Cu, and Tc radiometals for medical applications [1-4]. The technology is based on solid target irradiation under an 18 MeV proton beam of an IBA C18 cyclotron. The solid target production method leads to higher activity of the final product than the liquid one. Meanwhile, there are technical difficulties related to transporting the solid targets to the hot cell for the purification and synthesis of the final radiopharmaceutical. In the case of the liquid targets, the transportation is effortless using tubes.
To solve difficulties with the solid target transportation, it was decided to dissolve the target after the irradiation, just in the irradiation vault, and then transport the resulting solution via tubes. Similar systems were developed by some groups and companies [5,6]. For the irradiation, the Nirta Solid Compact Model TS06 target module is used [7]. The target material is located in the center of the coin-sized target holder, which can be dropped down from the Nirta module just after the irradiation. "KATIL", the dissolution station was designed, created, and tested to accept and dissolve the released solid target. When the target reaches its final position, the dissolution chamber hermetically seals to the target holder. The dissolution liquid circulates through the chamber via a peristaltic pump until the whole target dissolves. After this, the dissolved target is ready for transportation to the hot cell.
The whole system consists of a peristaltic pump, valves, a heater, and can be controlled remotely from a PC using special software, which is essential in terms of radiation safety.
Acknowledgment
The work was supported by the Higher Education and Science Committee of MESCS RA, in the framework of the research project № 24LCG-2G028
The work was supported by the IAEA Coordinated Research Project F22073, Research Contract No. 24305.
References
- Avetisyan, R. Dallakyan, R. Sarkisyan, A. Melkonyan, M. Mkrtchyan, G. Harutyunyan, N. Dobrovolsky, S. Sergeeva. TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT FOR 99mTc DIRECT PRODUCTION UNDER PROTON BEAM FROM C18 CYCLOTRON AT NATIONAL SCIENCE LABORATORY. Accelerator-based Alternatives to Non-HEU Production of Mo-99/Tc-99m, 16-30 pp., 2017
- G. Elbakyan. Experimental Study of the Production of Medical Isotope Gallium-67 on the Beam of Yerevan Cyclotron. J. Contemp. Phys. 56, 73–78 (2021)
- A. Avetisyan, R. Dallakyan, N. Dobrovolski, et al. Numerical Modeling of Cooling Processes of a Locally Inclined Target with a Nirta Solid Compact Target Module. J. Contemp. Phys. 59, 1–10 (2024).
- R. Dallakyan, N. Dobrovolski, A. Grigoryan, et al. Influence of the Target Holder Material on the Cooling Processes of Locally Inclined Targets in the Nirta Solid Compact Target Module. J. Contemp. Phys. 59, 129–137 (2024)
- Z. William. Gelbart and Richard R. Johnson. Solid Target System with In-Situ Target Dissolution. Instruments 2019, 3(1), 14
- https://syniq.hu/product/hybrid-target-system-for-68ga-production
- https://elexcomm.com/product/539dd37d5a2a548b53000001
