Isotope harvesting from a NSCL beam blocker: Isolation of ^173,174lu

A decommissioned beam blocker from the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory was processed for recovery of long-lived Lu radioisotopes at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The beam blocker was a W alloy that had built up considerable levels of activation from high energy particle irradiation over the course of 20 years. The isolation of ^173,174Lu from the bulk material required a complex chemical separation scheme due to the large mass and the wide variety of elements present. The final yield of ^173,174Lu was 76.7 ± 4.8% with an extremely high radiopurity and chemical purity. The reduction in W mass from the initial material to the final sample was 8 × 10¹⁰. The results show great promise for extracting large quantities of Lu radioisotopes from these types of W beam blockers at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, which will be irradiated at levels significantly higher than the beam blocker investigated here.