Production of α-particle emitting ²¹¹At using 45 MeV α-beam

Among the α-particle emitting radionuclides, (211)At is considered to be a promising radionuclide for targeted cancer therapy due to its decay properties. The range of alpha particles produced by the decay of (211)At are less than 70 µm in water with a linear energy transfer between 100 and 130 keV µm(-1), which are about the maximum relative biological effectiveness for heavy ions. It is important to note that at the present time, only a few of cyclotrons routinely produce (211)At. The direct production method is based on the nuclear reactions (209)Bi(α,2n)(211)At. Production of the radionuclide (211)At was carried out using the MC-50 cyclotron at the Korea Institute of Radiological and Medical Sciences (KIRAMS). To ensure high beam current, the α-beam was extracted with an initial energy of 45 MeV, which was degraded to obtain the appropriate α-beam energy. The calculations of beam energy degradation were performed utilizing the MCNPX. Alumina-baked targets were prepared by heating the bismuth metal powder onto a circular cavity in a furnace. When using an E(α, av) of 29.17 MeV, the very small contribution of (210)At confirms the right choice of the irradiation energy to obtain a pure production of (211)At isotope.