Production of a Short-Lived Therapeutic α-Emitter 149Tb by Irradiation of Europium by 63 MeV α-Particles.

¹⁴⁹Tb is currently considered to be a promising α-emitting isotope radioimmunotherapy. It is shown that it can be obtained without the use of a carrier by irradiating a target consisting of Eu₂O₃ with ⁴He with energy 63 MeV. After irradiation, radiochemical separation of terbium radioisotopes was performed in a time not exceeding the half-life of ¹⁴⁹Tb (4.12 h). It was based on reductive co-precipitation of europium and extraction-chromatographic purification. The obtained product, including ¹⁴⁹Tb and the associated terbium radioisotopes, were analyzed by means of alpha- and gamma-spectrometry. It was concluded that the combination and sequence of approaches used in this work allow rapid production of short-lived ¹⁴⁹Tb and the use of the technological route implemented in this work in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]