[ RadSafe ] Disruption of medical isotope supply

[Franta, Jaroslav]

"Chris van den Bergen" wrote on Radsafe:

I suspect that they are still producing some Mo99m using the cyclotron, but this is purely speculation.

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Cyclotrons are typically used for production of neutron-poor radioisotopes such as F-18, whereas reactors are needed for producing neutron-rich radioisotopes like Mo-99, either by fission or neutron irradiation of a lighter isotope.

In the second half of this web page,
http://www.cns-snc.ca/branches/quebec/slowpoke/CHUS_forensique.html
I have posted a table listing a number of the popular cyclotron-produced radioisotopes.

The text on that page is in French, but if you can read it, there is a brief description of the differences between Mo-99 and the other radioisotopes, the types of imaging machines required to use them (PET versus SPECT), and some typical results achieved.

The web page is a bit old (need to update some of the links), but the nuclear reactions haven't changed....

Jaro
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