64Cu production by 14 MeV neutron beam

Abstract

64Cu is an emerging radionuclide of great interest in personalized nuclear medicine. It is produced by a cyclotron via the reaction 64Ni(p,n)64Cu. This production method increased during the last decades, because small biomedical cyclotrons can be easily installed close to the nuclear medicine department of a hospital. As a matter of fact, 64Ni is a very expensive target material. For this reason, an alternative 64Cu production method was investigated at ENEA by using the quasi-monochromatic 14 MeV fusion neutron beam made available at the Frascati Neutron Generator (FNG) located at the ENEA – Frascati Research Center. In particular, two nuclear reactions were studied: 65Cu(n,2n)64Cu and 64Zn(n,p)64Cu. The radiochemical analysis of the activated samples was performed at the ENEA-NMLNWM laboratory located in ENEA-Casaccia Research Center. The activity measurements were carried out at the ENEA-INMRI, located in the ENEA-Casaccia Research Center, with high metrological level conditions and by assuring their traceability to the 64Cu primary activity standard here developed and maintained. A prediction of the 64Cu production by means of the high-brilliance 14 MeV neutron source named Sorgentina is also discussed.

The (64)Zn-based production route to (64)Cu β(±) emitter using accelerator-driven 14 MeV fusion neutrons

“…-Another neutron activation experiment was carried out on a 64 Zn-enriched ( iso Zn) sample of mass m = (0.918089 ± 0.000001) g and certified purity of 99.40%. This irradiation allowed not only to estimate the activity produced for the iso Zn sample [17] but also to perform some preliminary tests in the isotopes separation in order to extract the 64 Cu from the irradiated enriched zinc. In fact, to avoid serious problems in the separation process with many impurities of the copper activated in a natural zinc sample, an enriched one is suitable for this kind of tests.…”