Production of high-purity radium-223 from legacy actinium-beryllium neutron sources

Radium-223 is a short-lived alpha-particle-emitting radionuclide with potential applications in cancer treatment. Research to develop new radiopharmaceuticals employing (223)Ra has been hindered by poor availability due to the small quantities of parent actinium-227 available world-wide. The purpose of this study was to develop innovative and cost-effective methods to obtain high-purity (223)Ra from (227)Ac. We obtained (227)Ac from two surplus actinium-beryllium neutron generators. We retrieved the actinium/beryllium buttons from the sources and dissolved them in a sulfuric-nitric acid solution. A crude actinium solid was recovered from the solution by coprecipitation with thorium fluoride, leaving beryllium in solution. The crude actinium was purified to provide about 40 milligrams of actinium nitrate using anion exchange in methanol-water-nitric acid solution. The purified actinium was then used to generate high-purity (223)Ra. We extracted (223)Ra using anion exchange in a methanol-water-nitric acid solution. After the radium was separated, actinium and thorium were then eluted from the column and dried for interim storage. This single-pass separation produces high purity, carrier-free (223)Ra product, and does not disturb the (227)Ac/(227)Th equilibrium. A high purity, carrier-free (227)Th was also obtained from the actinium using a similar anion exchange in nitric acid. These methods enable efficient production of (223)Ra for research and new alpha-emitter radiopharmaceutical development.