Photo Production of Isotopes for Medical and Industrial Usages

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Barbara Szpunar
Chary Rangacharyulu

Abstract

Photo-neutron reactions induced by ~15 MeV photons offer an attractive option to produce the isotopes of interest for medical and industrial applications. In this article, we present the results of simulations using FLUKA Monte Carlo code on the 100Mo(g,n)99Mo and 193Ir(g,n)192Ir processes of great interest to medical industry. It is seen that the 99Mo decaying to 99mTc and the 192Ir are copiously produced. In contrast to the conventional bremsstrahlung photon beam sources, the laser back scatter photon sources at electron synchrotrons provide the selective tuning capability of photons of energies of interest. This feature coupled with the ubiquitous Giant Dipole Resonance excitations of atomic nuclei promise a fertile ground of nuclear isotope productions. It is suggested that a new photon beam-line at the Canadian Light Source can serve as a test ground for this purpose.

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