Speaker: Eva Birnbaum
Isotope Production at Los Alamos National Laboratory
Abstract:
LANL’s Isotope Production Facility (IPF) is an intermediate energy proton bombardment facility at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE), configured to maximize production of high purity and high specific-activity isotopes. With a high current (250 mA) beam of 100 MeV protons incident on a water-cooled stack of three targets, IPF is well suited to produce specific long-lived isotopes in solid targets. Targets are processed at the nearby Hot Cell Facility and the isolated isotope products are shipped to customers for medical and industrial use, as well as for research into future applications. Currently, beam time is primarily used for the production of 82Sr and 68Ge, both of which are utilized for medical imaging via positron emission tomography (PET). Research into production of a number of other radionuclides is being pursued at IPF, including 225Ac, 44Ti, 119Sb, and 230U.