Actinium-225 Production with an Electron Accelerator

TL;DR

This paper discusses a novel method for producing Ac-225, a crucial isotope for targeted alpha therapy, using an electron accelerator with detailed technical design and yield modeling to enhance availability for medical applications.

Contribution

It introduces a new accelerator-based production method for Ac-225 using photonuclear reactions with radium targets, including detailed target design and yield optimization.

Findings

Potential to produce nearly four curies of Ac-225 in 10 days

Design of radium targets capable of multiple extractions

Monte Carlo modeling supports yield estimates and isotope purity

Abstract

There has been growing clinical evidence of the value of targeted alpha therapy for treatment of several cancers. The work has been slowed by the lack of availability of the key alpha emitting isotopes, especially Ac-225. Until this time, most of the supply has been from three Th-229 generators that are milked to produce hundreds of mCi of Ac-225 every month. There has been a growing effort to produce new sources of Ac-225 from several different accelerator-based routes. It can be produced with medical-isotope cyclotrons with a proton energy of at least 16 MeV using the reaction Ra-226(p,2n)Ac-225. It can also be produced by using high-energy protons (150 to 800 MeV) for spallation of a thorium target. Significant experimental work has been applied to both processes. It can also be produced by the photonuclear reaction, Ra-226({\gamma},n)Ra-225. The Ra-225 decays via beta decay to Ac-225 with a half life of 14.9 days. The photons are produced by an intense beam of electrons with an energy about 25 to 30 MeV. This paper will provide a technical description of radium targets and a target chamber that would be capable of producing a yield of four curies of Ra-225 from a 10-day irradiation of one gram of radium segmented into two to four separate encapsulated targets, at a beam power of 20 kW. These targets could be milked at least three times, yielding nearly four curies of Ac-225. There is also a description of a method to reduce production of Ac-227 to values less than a few parts per million of the yield of Ac-225. The Monte Carlo code Fluka has been used to model the yields of Ra-225 and support the design concept to reduce the production of Ac-227. It has also been used to model the experimental results by Maslov et al. [https://doi.org/10.1134/S1066362206020184] to provide reasonable confidence in the cross-section value used by the code.