RE: [cdn-nucl-l] Nuclear research reactor declared safe to reopen

["Adam McLean" <adam.mclean@utoronto.ca>]

Title: Message

Hi Jaro,

 

Okay, I didn't realise that just because there was no fission going on (i.e. isotopes made by activation by  gammas/electrons/neutrons) was not a nuclear process :) 

 

I found a few web pages on accelerator isotope devices, mainly in the US:

 

Isotope Production Facility at Los Alomos National Labs

http://www.ne.doe.gov/isotope/fac&cap.html

 

Rare Isotope Accelerator at Argonne National Labs

http://www.phy.anl.gov/ria/w.html

http://www.anl.gov/OPA/logos18-2/ria1.htm

 

Note how large these facilities are!  Likely quite expensive.

 

Each mentions isotopes they can produce but neither mentions rates.  A presentation from Cancer Care Manitoba at: http://www.umanitoba.ca/faculties/medicine/radiology/presentations/jsandeman/1 has a few figures (though it's obvously much smaller that either of the above, and more specialized for a specific purpose).  They estimate for their 23 MV accelerator, production of 13N of 0.158 uCi/s and 15O of 0.435 uCi/s.  Any comparison to what a typical Slowpoke, or NRU would be able to make?

 

What's interesting is that one of the main reasons these machines were built seems to be for incineration of long-lived isotopes, i.e. those in waste.  See http://apt.lanl.gov/atw/ for a great introduction to transmutation.

 

Adam

 

-----Original Message-----
From: cdn-nucl-l-admin@informer2.cis.McMaster.CA [mailto:cdn-nucl-l-admin@informer2.cis.McMaster.CA] On Behalf Of Franta, Jaroslav
Sent: Friday, March 22, 2002 9:34 AM
To: Canadian Nuclear Discussion List
Subject: RE: [cdn-nucl-l] Nuclear research reactor declared safe to reopen

Posted on expatica.com on March 21, 2002 and at:
http://www.expatica.com/index.asp?pad=2,18,&item_id=20855
Methods of producing isotopes without using nuclear technology (re. Last
sentence)???  Any idea what Greenpeace is asking for here?
==============

Ans.:
In the world according to Greenpeace, anything which does not involve fission is not nuclear technology. They want medical isotopes to be made by particle accelerators (as some of the short-lived ones already are...). In other words, why do things "the easy way," when you can do them "the hard way" ?

Maybe someone can tell us what the limitations of accelerator production technology would be on a case-by-case basis -- for example with Mo-99/Tc-99m, I-131, I-135, Pd-103, Bi-213, At-225, Y-90, Sr-90, Ir-192, P-32, etc., and neutrons for BNCT.

Jaro