Advancing Nuclear Medicine Through Innovation (2007) / Chapter Skim
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5 Availability of Radionuclides for Nuclear Medicine Research
5 Availability of Radionuclides for Nuclear Medicine Research
Pages 75-88
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From page 75... ...
Currently, more than 70 percent of all procedures in nuclear medicine are based on technetium-99m (Nuclear Energy Agency 2000) , a radionuclide produced by individual generators that use material produced in reactors outside of the United States.1 Growing use of positron emission tomography (PET)
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From page 76... ...
. The production of radionuclides in the United States can be traced to the graphite reactor at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)
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From page 77... ...
This work encouraged a commercial company to design and build a small cyclotron dedicated to providing large quantities of fluorine-18, carbon-11, and oxygen-15 to PET centers. There are now nearly 200 of these cyclotrons positioned around the world providing an infrastructure for supply of FDG and other PET tracers (see Figure 6.1 for the geographic distribution of cyclotrons in the United States)
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From page 78... ...
aAnother method that is used for radionuclide production involves the separation of fission products of uranium-235, which is used as the fuel in most nuclear reactors. This production method is currently used to produce molybdenum-99 for use in technetium-99m generators.
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From page 79... ...
As the particle gains energy the circular path increases in radius until it reaches the energy desired, whereupon it is extracted and directed to a target material where a nuclear reaction forms the radionuclide of choice (see Figure 1)
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From page 80... ...
5.3 CURRENT STATE OF RADIONUCLIDE AVAILABILITY IN THE UNITED STATES The Department of Energy's (DOE) national laboratories remain the primary source of less commonly used or exotic radionuclides, produced from their large reactor and accelerator facilities.
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From page 81... ...
Table 5.1 lists the reactor and accelerator facilities in the United States that have medical radionuclide production capability. 4 Although the ATR at INL is the largest research reactor in the United States, it is not de signed to produce medical isotopes with short half-lives.
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From page 82... ...
OSTRa Oregon State 1 MW Variety (research quantities) Accelerators 26Al, 67Cu, 68Ge, 82Sr, 86Y, LANL LANSCE 800 MeV 124I, proton and others 67Cu, 82Sr, 68Ge, BNL BLIP 200 MeV and others proton 64Cu, 77Br, 66Ga, 124I, Washington University cyclotrons 94mTc 64Cu, 67Cu, 111In, 123I, 201Tl Sciencesb Trace Life Various LINAC and cyclotrons aNon-DOE facilities: University research reactors.
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From page 83... ...
Although the supply is not seen as disappearing in the near term, there is a concern that without a clear plan to address future needs, researchers both in the United States and worldwide will face a shortage of enriched stable isotopes. Research radionuclide distribution has also been affected by the Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act of 1990 (Public Law 101-101)
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From page 84... ...
P.L. 101-101 is one of two major laws that provide the authority to regulate radionuclide production and distribution in the United States.
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From page 85... ...
The parasitic use of physics machines has failed to meet the radionuclide type, quantity, timeliness of production, and cost requirements of the medical research community. For example, copper-67 has shown great promise as a therapeutic radionuclide, but it is available only through the parasitic use of accelerators with missions other than radionuclide production.9 Another example is astatine-211, an alpha-emitting radionuclide that requires a medium 9 BNL, LANL, and Tri-University Meson Facility (TRIUMF)
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From page 86... ...
researchers. A number of studies that have reviewed this issue have concluded that the United States should have a dedicated radionuclide production facility to meet the needs of the research community (IOM 1995, Wagner et al.
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From page 87... ...
5.5 RECOMMENDATIONS RECOMMENDATION 1: Improve domestic medical radionuclide production. To alleviate the shortage of accelerator- and nuclear reactor-produced medical radionuclides needed for research, a dedicated accelerator and an upgrade to a nuclear reactor should be considered.
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From page 88... ...
The current inventory of enriched stable isotopes is decreasing and there is growing concern that the aging calutrons cannot be operated cost-effectively to meet demand if reopened. The DOE should evaluate the option of a domestic enriched isotope supply source to ensure availability for medical research.
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