# NUCLEAR DATA REQUIREMENTS FOR THE PRODUCTION OF MEDICAL ISOTOPES IN FISSION REACTORS AND PARTICLE ACCELERATORS

## 1 Introduction

Medical radioisotope production is receiving increased attention due to the many advances in nuclear medicine. In addition to further development in diagnostic nuclear medicine, pioneering work is being done in therapeutic applications of radioisotopes. For example, radiolabeled monoclonal antibodies are being used to treat leukemia and lymphoma, brachytherapy is being used to treat prostate cancer, radioactive stents are being used to prevent restenosis (reclogging of arteries) following angioplasty treatment of coronary heart disease, and radioisotopes are being used to palliate the excruciating bone pain associated with metastatic cancer.

Continued success in developing cures for cancer and ultimately in treating a large number of cancer patients is adversely impacted by this lack of knowledge of certain neutron capture cross sections for medically important radioisotopes. Without this data, medical radioisotope production cannot be optimized. Optimization is not only critical for economic reasons, but also for applications requiring the production of very high specific activity radioisotopes. In many cases, trial and mixed success is “de rigueur” for producing certain radioisotopes of medical significance.

## 2 Reactor-Spectrum Data Needs

As an example, the thermal and resonance integral cross sections are known for <sup>186</sup>W and <sup>187</sup>W , but not for <sup>188</sup>W. Thus, optimal production of the medically important radioisotope <sup>188</sup>W may not be realized since calculations related to the design of <sup>186</sup>W targets, their placements in a reactor and irradiation times cannot accurately be performed.

The design for a reactor focused on isotope production needs to consider the neutron cross sections of the medical radioisotopes to be produced so that proper neutronic conditions can be achieved for optimal radioisotope production. Neutron cross section information is needed to design targets (and hopefully a reactor) for the optimal production of medical radioisotopes.

Production of medical radioisotopes in fission reactor systems must be optimized with respect to several different parameters: position, target composition, density, configuration, etc. Research is required to determine the needed cross sections. Knowledge of these cross sections will benefit several practical applications and will also provide important modern data information for many isotopes previously unavailable.

The main objective of an initiative to address the cross section deficiencies is to access the cross sections that are of the greatest projected need. Table 1 identifies several medical radioisotopes that harbor deficiencies in cross section knowledge required for efficient, high specific activity production. In order to demonstrate how the lack of knowledge of the cross section impacts production results, calculations were made for six important medical isotope products. Table 2 shows these results comparing values with known and unity cross sections.

## 3 Medium-Energy Data Evaluations

In the radiation environment of a proton accelerator target, neutron and proton reactions may significantly contribute to the production of the desired radionuclide. Medium-energy protons may each produce a few tens of neutrons in a high-Z target, each having a significant range and contribution to particle flux. The complexities resulting from the myriad of possible reaction paths, along with spatially varying flux magnitudes and spectra, require the evaluation of pertinent cross sections and fluxes. These are evaluated in sequential calculations with the LAHET Code System LCS — the combination of LAHET and MCNP, or their subsequent combination in MCNPX — with the CINDER’90 nuclide inventory code;<sup>,</sup> in this sequence, cross sections for reactions of protons and medium-energy neutrons are calculated with on-line nuclear models and evaluated lower-energy neutron reaction cross section are contained in the CINDER’90 library. This state-of-the-art sequence is used effectively in the analysis of medium-energy designs but requires a significant investment of CPU time.

Nuclear models have also been utilized with limited available measured cross section data to form evaluations for a growing number of target nuclides. Neutron and proton cross sections from threshold to 1.7 GeV have been evaluated for the stable isotopes of O, F, Ne, Na, Mg, Al, S, Cl, Ar, K, Zn, Ga, Ge, As, Zr, Nb, Mo, Xe, Cs, Ba, La, and Hg — or about 30% of the naturally-occuring stable nuclides. These evaluations have used available measured data from the LANL T-2 compilation, the evaluations of the EAF97 library for neutrons below 20 MeV, and calculations with HMS-ALICE, CEM95, and the BERTINI and ISABEL models of LAHET. Samples of the data and evaluations for two of nearly 700 reactions evaluated to date are shown in Figure 1. Complete results are shown in Ref. 10.

## 4 Conclusions

The status of simulation methods and data available for the description of isotope production is fair and improving, but many additional cross section measurements and evaluations are needed. Consequently, further research in obtaining better cross section information will have positive benefits in the field of medical science.