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The Los Alamos Isotope Production Facility (IPF) creates medical isotopes using a proton beam impinged on a target stack. Spallation neutrons are created in the interaction of the beam with target. The use of these spallation neutrons to produce additional radionuclides has been proposed. However, the energy distribution and magnitude of the flux is not well understood. A modified SAND-II spectral adjustment routine has been used with radioactivation foils to determine the differential neutron fluence for these spallation neutrons during a standard IPF production run.

A critical experiment was performed on the Comet assembly to provide nuclear data in a non-thermal neutron spectrum and to re-establish experimental measurement capabilities relevant to the United ...

Radioactive 82Sr/82Rb produced at Los Alamos National Laboratory is routinely used in generators for hospitals and medical laboratories to support cardiac imaging. The proper quantification of strontium radioisotopes in a sample is important to ensure quality and regulatory compliance. However, the quantification of the impurity 85Sr is difficult, because its primary gamma-ray at 514 keV interferes with the annihilation peak at 511 keV from 82Rb. Synthetic spectra were created as a quality test of several gamma-ray spectral analysis tools’ ability to resolve peaks in the 511/514 keV multiplet. The peak fitting results from the spectroscopy tools (RAYGUN, SPECANAL, GammaVision, UNISAMPO, and GAMANAL) are presented. These spectra can also be useful for other programs to test their annihilation peak analysis procedures.

Accelerator production of 225Ac addresses the global supply deficiency currently inhibiting clinical trials from establishing 225Ac's therapeutic utility, provided that the accelerator product is of sufficient radionuclidic purity for patient use. Two proton activation experiments utilizing the stacked foil technique between 40 and 200 MeV were employed to study the likely co-formation of radionuclides expected to be especially challenging to separate from 225Ac. Foils were assayed by nondestructive γ-spectroscopy and by α-spectroscopy of chemically processed target material. Nuclear formation cross sections for the radionuclides 226Ac and 227Ac as well as lower lanthanide radioisotopes 139Ce, 141Ce, 143Ce, and 140La whose elemental ionic radii closely match that of actinium were measured and are reported. The predictions of the latest MCNP6 event generators are compared with measured data, as they permit estimation of the formation rates of other radionuclides whose decay emissions are not clearly discerned in the complex spectra collected from 232Th(p,x) fission product mixtures.

Cross sections for (223,)(225)Ra, (225)Ac and (227)Th production by the proton bombardment of natural thorium targets were measured at proton energies below 200 MeV. Our measurements are in good agreement with previously published data and offer a complete excitation function for (223,)(225)Ra in the energy range above 90 MeV. Comparison of theoretical predictions with the experimental data shows reasonable-to-good agreement. Results indicate that accelerator-based production of (225)Ac and (223)Ra below 200 MeV is a viable production method.

A single terbium foil was irradiated with 800 MeV protons to ascertain the potential for production of lanthanide isotopes of interest in medical, astrophysical, and basic science research and to contribute to nuclear data repositories. Isotopes produced in the foil were quantified by gamma spectroscopy. Cross sections for 36 isotopes produced in the irradiation are reported and compared with predictions by the MCNP6 transport code using the CEM03.03, Bertini, and INCL+ABLA event generators. Our results indicate the need to accurately consider fission and fragmentation of relatively light target nuclei like terbium in the modeling of nuclear reactions at 800 MeV. The predictive power of the code was found to be different for each event generator tested but was satisfactory for most of the product yields in the mass region where spallation reactions dominate. However, none of the event generators' results are in complete agreement with measured data., Comment: 16 pages, 3 figures, 1 tables, only pdf, submitted to Nuclear Physics A

We report separation data indicating that 99Mo can be separated from a vast excess of either uranyl sulfate or uranyl nitrate in irradiated dilute acid solutions. These results suggest that, if medical isotope 99Mo is produced during fission of high concentrations of low enriched uranium sulfate solution fuel, it is feasible to both recover >90% of the 99Mo for further purification and the uranium for recycle.

Background counts in gamma-ray spectrometry are caused by a variety of sources. Among these are naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM) in the environment, interactions from cosmic radiation, and contamination within the laboratory. High-purity germanium detectors were used to acquire long background spectra in Los Alamos, NM (elevation ~7,300 feet) and Austin, TX (elevation ~500 feet). This difference in elevation has a sizeable effect on background spectra due to cosmic interactions, such as (n,n′) and (n,γ). Los Alamos also has a fairly high NORM concentration in the soil relative to Austin, and this gives way to various spectral interferences. When analyzing nuclear forensics samples, these background sources can have non-trivial effects on detection limits of low-level fission products. By accurately determining the influence that elevation and environment have on background spectra, interferences within various laboratory environments can be more accurately characterized.

Nuclear formation cross sections are reported for 26 radionuclides, measured with 40 to 200 MeV proton irradiations of terbium foils. These data are relevant to the production of medically relevant radionuclides (e.g., 152Tb, 155Tb, 155Eu, and 156Eu) and to ongoing efforts to characterize stellar nucleosynthesis routes passing through long-lived intermediaries (e.g., 153Gd). Computational predictions from the ALICE2011, CEM03.03, Bertini, and INCL+ABLA codes are compared with newly measured data to contribute to the ongoing process of code development, and yields are calculated for selected radionuclides using measured data., Comment: 34 pages, 30 figures, 5 tables, submitted to Phys. Rev. C

Nuclear formation cross sections are reported for 65 nuclides produced from 800-MeV proton irradiation of thorium foils. These data are useful as benchmarks for computational predictions in the ongoing process of theoretical code development and also to the design of spallation-based radioisotope production currently being considered for multiple radiotherapeutic pharmaceutical agents. Measured data are compared with the predictions of three MCNP6 event generators and used to evaluate the potential for 800-MeV productions of radioisotopes of interest for medical radiotherapy. In only a few instances code predictions are discrepant from measured values by more than a factor of two, demonstrating satisfactory predictive power across a large mass range. Similarly, agreement between measurements presented here and those previously reported is good, lending credibility to predictions of target yields and radioimpurities for high-energy accelerator-produced radionuclides., Comment: 16 pages, 3 figures, 2 tables, only pdf, minor revision: version accepted for publication by Phys. Rev. C. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1207.1486

The COMET assembly at the National Criticality Experiments Research Center (NCERC) at the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) was used to irradiate twelve foils in September 2011. The intention of this irradiation was to measure 'peak yield' fission product activities, activation products, and so-called 'endpoint R values' for different foil materials in a non-thermal neutron spectrum. After irradiation, several of the foils were shipped to Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) for radiochemical analysis. The results from the non-destructive and radiochemical analyses of six of these foils are presented.