TABLE OF CONTENTS In this chapter we have summarized the varied approaches to produce medical radionuclides with neutrons in a nuclear reactor. The combination of generally large production cross sections and high neutron flux have made this method the principal route to create medical radionuclides. Overall demand for the most widely used such nuclides, 99Mo and 131I, continues to grow somewhat, and there is a very large potential demand for newer neutron-rich radionuclides for cancer therapy.
This is occurring in parallel with large increases in demand for short-lived diagnostic radiopharmaceuticals for cancer detection and staging, especially cyclotron produced 18FDG (fluorodeoxyglucose). While the number of small cyclotrons to supply 18F is increasing rapidly at present, at least one per month in the United States alone, the situation with reactors is not as sanguine. In recent years the closure of the High Flux Beam Reactor and Brookhaven Medical Research Reactor both at BNL, the closure of the Fast Flux Test Facility at the Hanford Site (Washington State), and the cancellation of the Advanced Neutron Source project at ORNL, have led to a large decline in reactor nuclide production capability in the United States. The most useful remaining reactors for nuclide production are the High Flux Isotope Reactor at ORNL, and the Missouri University Research Reactor. Both are quite old, but very flexible and capable. Outside the US the situation is dramatically better, with new production reactors being built in Canada and Australia, and a stable situation in Europe...
