Processes, systems, and apparatus for cyclotron production of technetium-99m

Abstract

A process for producing technetium-99m from a molybdenum-100 metal powder, comprising the steps of:

• • (i) irradiating in a substantially oxygen-free environment, a hardened sintered target plate coated with a Mo-100 metal, with protons produced by a cyclotron;
  • (ii) dissolving molybdenum ions and technetium ions from the irradiated target plate with an H₂O₂ solution to form an oxide solution;
  • (iv) raising the pH of the oxide solution to about 14;
  • (v) flowing the pH-adjusted oxide solution through a resin column to immobilize K[TcO₄] ions thereon and to elute K₂[MoO₄] ions therefrom;
  • (vi) eluting the bound K[TcO₄] ions from the resin column;
  • (vii) flowing the eluted K[TcO₄] ions through an alumina column to immobilize K[TcO₄] ions thereon;
  • (viii) washing the immobilized K[TcO₄] ions with water;
  • (ix) eluting the immobilized K[TcO₄] ions with a saline solution; and
  • (x) recovering the eluted Na[TcO₄] ions.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD[0001]The present disclosure pertains to processes, systems, and apparatus, for production of technetium-99m. More particularly, the present pertains to production of technetium-99m from molybdenum-100 using accelerators such as cyclotrons.BACKGROUND[0002]Technetium-99m, referred to hereinafter as Tc-99m, is one of the most widely used radioactive tracers in nuclear medicine diagnostic procedures. Tc-99m emits readily detectable 140 keV gamma rays and has a half-life of only about six hours, thereby limiting patients' exposure to radioactivity. Depending on the type of nuclear medicine procedure, Tc-99m is bound to a selected pharmaceutical that transports the Tc-99m to its required location which is then imaged by radiology equipment. Common nuclear medical diagnostic procedures include tagging Tc-99m to sulfur colloids for imaging the liver, the spleen, and bone marrow, to macroaggregated albumin for lung scanning, to phosphonates for bone scanning, to iminodiacetic...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

The problem with fission-based production of Tc-99m is that the several nuclear reactors producing the world-wide supply of Mo-99 are close to the end of their lifetimes. Almost two-thirds of the world's supply of Mo-99 currently comes from two reactors: (i) the National Research Universal Reactor at the Chalk River Laboratories in Ontario, Canada, and (ii) the Petten nuclear reactor in the Netherlands.

Both facilities were shut-down for extended periods of time in 2009-2010 which caused a serious on-going world-wide shortage of supply of Mo-99 for medical facilities.

However, analyses of numerous studies reporting conversion of Mo-100 to Tc-99m show considerable discrepancies regarding conversion efficiencies, gamma ray production, and purity (Challan et al., 2007, Thin target yields and Empire-II predictions in the accelerator production of technetium-99m.

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