Recycling of ¹⁸O enriched water used in ¹⁸F cyclotron production

A simple, effective, easy-handling and reliable method for recycling of [¹⁸O]H₂O from fluorine-18 production, was developed based on co-precipitation, co-crystallization and distillation. Preliminary experiments with normal H₂O were used to determine the optimal purification conditions, which were tested for purification of used [¹⁸O]H₂O from a scientific and commercial ¹⁸F-production facility. The obtained recycled [¹⁸O]H₂O had comparable quality to commercially available ¹⁸O enriched water. The loss of weight for enriched water was about only 7% and losses of ¹⁸O enrichment about 1.3% ± 0.2%. The method ensures elimination of radioisotopes (99.7% ± 0.1%), organic compounds (99.5% ± 0.1%) and trace metals (99.8% ± 0.1%) with special attention on radiation safety with dosimetry control checks and in total 1000 times mass reduction of the initial radioactive waste.