PRODUCTION OF RADIOISOTOPES OF MEDICAL INTEREST BY PHOTONUCLEAR REACTION USING ELI-NP γ-RAY BEAM.

The radioisotope production has a crucial role in medical diagnosis and therapy. In this work, we investigated the possibility of obtaining radioisotopes of medical interest through photo-neutron reactions using the highintensity γ beams at the Extreme Light Infrastructure - Nuclear Physics (ELI-NP) facility. The specific activity for three benchmark radioisotopes, ⁹⁹Mo/^99mTc, ¹⁸⁶Re and ²²⁵Ra/²²⁵Ac, was obtained as a function of γ-beam energy, target geometry and irradiation time. Optimization for the generation of these radioisotopes at ELI-NP was investigated. We estimated that a saturation specific activity of the order of 1-2 mCi/g could be obtained for a thin target (radius 1-2 mm, thickness 1 cm) and for a conservative γ-beam flux of 10¹¹ s^-1. The ELI-NP, based on these estimations, could provide the possibility for the production of certain radioisotopes in sufficient quantities for nuclear medicine research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]