Developments in Alpha Emitting Radioisotope Production at the Joint Research Centre (jrc) of the European Commission

Alpha emitting radioisotopes are promising candidates for radiotherapy of several tumour types due to the high linear energy transfer (LET) of alpha particles in biological tissues. For this purpose research on productions of Ac (via Ra(p,2n)Ac) and of At (via Bi(α,2n)At) is undertaken. The research activities aim at improving production techniques and radiochemical processing yield in order to enhance the availability of these radioisotopes for medical application. Theoretical calculations and experimental validation have been used to optimise production conditions and to test alternative production routes. Our results and the current interest in investigating other alpha emitters for radioisotope therapy demonstrate the need for flexible cyclotrons like the Scanditronix MC40 Cyclotron of the JRC-IHCP at Ispra, capable of accelerating a range of light particles (protons, deuterons, alphas, He), with high extracted beam currents.