TABLE OF CONTENTS S.Mirzadeh 1, L.F.Mausner 2, M.A.Garland 3
1Oak Ridge National Laboratory, P.O. Box 2008, Mail Stop 6229, Oak Ridge, TN 37831 6229
2Brookhaven National Laboratory, P.O. Box 5000, Building 801, Upton, NY 11973 5000
3University of Maryland, Department of Materials and Nuclear Engineering, College Park, MD 20742 2115
The therapeutic use of radionuclides in nuclear medicine, oncology and cardiology is the most rapidly growing use of medical radionuclides. Since most therapeutic radionuclides are neutron rich and decay by ? ?emission, they are reactor-produced. This chapter deals mainly with production approaches with neutrons. Neutron interactions with matter, neutron transmission and activation rates, and neutron spectra of nuclear reactors are discussed in some detail. Further, a short discussion of the neutron-energy dependence of cross sections, reaction rates in thermal reactors, cross section measurements and flux monitoring, and general equations governing the reactor production of radionuclides are presented. Finally, the chapter is concluded by providing a number of examples encompassing the various possible reaction routes for production of a number of medical radionuclides in a reactor.
