15–20 May 2022
Casino Conference Centre
Europe/Prague timezone

Separation of terbium-161 from gadolinium target irradiated in nuclear reactor

19 May 2022, 18:09
18m
Gallery

Gallery

Poster Radiopharmaceutical Chemistry, Labelled Compounds Radiopharmaceuticals

Speaker

Marie Skálová (Department of Nuclear Chemistry, Faculty of Nuclear Sciences and Physical Engineering, CTU Prague)

Description

Terbium-161 is one of the perspective radionuclides with a potential use in nuclear medicine thanks to its ideal energy of beta radiation (E$_\beta$$_{max}$ = 593 keV) and half-life (6,9 d). In addition, terbium-161 emits a significant amount of conversion and Auger electrons, which increases its potential therapeutic efficacy. Terbium-161 can be prepared as no carrier added by neutron irradiation of highly enriched gadolinium-160 target in a nuclear reactor, through indirect production route Gd-160 (n,$\gamma$) Gd-161 $\rightarrow$ Tb-161. After irradiation, it is necessary to separate terbium from the target. For this purpose, the cation exchange chromatography is commonly used.

In this work, several irradiations of highly enriched Gd-160 target in the form of oxide or nitrate were performed in the nuclear reactor LVR 15 (CV Řež). For separation of Tb-161 from target, cation exchange chromatography (Dowex 50W×8 (H+), 100-200 mesh) with variously concentrated $\alpha$-hydroxyisobutyric acid as eluent was used. The presence of Tb-161 and possible radionuclide impurities was verified by gamma spectrometry on an HPGe detector. The fractions containing Tb-161 were purified from $\alpha$-hydroxyisobutyric acid also on the cation exchange resin, using hydrochloric acid as eluent. The presence of stable impurities was verified by ICP-MS method.

This work was supported by the project “Efficient Low-Energy Electron Cancer Therapy with Terbium-161” granted by the Norway and Technology Agency of the Czech Republic within the KAPPA Programme (grant No.: TO01000074).

Primary author

Marie Skálová (Department of Nuclear Chemistry, Faculty of Nuclear Sciences and Physical Engineering, CTU Prague)

Co-authors

Martin Palušák (Department of Nuclear Chemistry, Faculty of Nuclear Sciences and Physical Engineering, CTU Prague) Petra Suchánková (Department of Nuclear Chemistry, Faculty of Nuclear Sciences and Physical Engineering, CTU Prague) Martin Vlk (Department of Nuclear Chemistry, Faculty of Nuclear Sciences and Physical Engineering, CTU Prague) Jaroslav Šoltés (Centrum výzkumu Řež s.r.o.) Miroslav Vinš (Centrum výzkumu Řež s.r.o.) Sindre Hassfjell (Institute for energy technology) Jiri Muller (Institute for energy technology) Ján Kozempel (Department of Nuclear Chemistry, Faculty of Nuclear Sciences and Physical Engineering, CTU Prague)

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