Modeling and experimental data of zirconium-89 production yield

The radionuclide zirconium-89 can be employed for the positron emission tomography (PET). In this study ⁸⁹Zr excitation function via ⁸⁹Y(p,n)⁸⁹Zr reaction was calculated by the TALYS-1.8 code based on microscopic level density model. The formation of ⁸⁹Zr was simulated using the Monte Carlo simulation code MCNPX to calculate the integral yield in the ⁸⁹Y target body for threshold up to 40MeV incident-proton energy. The target thickness was based on calculation of the stopping power using the SRIM-2013 code matched to any incident-proton energy. The production yield of the ⁸⁹Zr simulated with the Monte Carlo method for the ⁸⁹Y(p,n)⁸⁹Zr, ⁸⁹Y(d,2n)⁸⁹Zr, ^natSr(α,xn)⁸⁹Zr and ^natZr(p,pxn)⁸⁹Zr reactions and the results were in good agreement with published experimental results for the optimum energy range. An experimental yield of 53.1MB/µA for the 15MeV proton-induced on Y₂O₃ powder as a disk-target obtained for 1h irradiation at the AMIRS cyclotron.