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Today, heavy particle accelerators are increasingly used in medicine, as in terms of developing and improving of the external beam therapy (proton and ion beam therapy), as well as in terms of introducing new methods of nuclear medicine (production of therapeutic and diagnostic radioisotopes). If talking about the usage of accelerators in nuclear medicine, here, in addition to low-energy accelerators (up to 20 MeV) used for PET radioisotopes production (F-18, N-13, C-11), accelerators of the medium (20 - 35 MeV) and high energies (more than 35 MeV) ranges are of increasing interest. This is primarily due to the growing demand for radioisotope products, the decommissioning of many nuclear reactors used to produce medical radioisotopes, as well as the development of new methods in nuclear medicine, such as in theranostics and corresponding requirements for the new promising radioisotopes for diagnostics and therapy.
At the same time, from the point of view of accelerator technologies, the most common types of accelerators used to produce radioisotopes are cyclotrons. However, projects aimed for the development of dedicated linear accelerators for radioisotope production, regularly appear in many countries of the world. Among the advantages of this approach, one can note the possibility to obtain a facility equipped with exit channels with various beam energies (thereby expanding the list of produced isotopes), among the disadvantages, one can note the lower values of the average beam current (as a result, the possibility of obtaining lower activities), as well as the large dimensions of the linear accelerator. As a result, today the market is dominated by cyclotrons, while the linear accelerators used to produce radioisotopes are research facilities.
At present, the Kurchatov Complex for Theoretical and Experimental Physics (ITEP) successfully operates the I-2 linear proton accelerator, which was previously used as an injector of the U-10 synchrotron. The main area of application is related to research in the field of the radiation damages of the electronic components, as well as to the technological irradiation of elements of power semiconductor electronics. In addition, researches in the field of radiobiology and accelerator technology are carried out. In accordance with the design parameters (proton energy in the output channel 24.5 MeV, average beam current 2.5 μA), the accelerator can also be used to produce various types of radioisotopes. As part of the development of this area, in collaboration with specialists from the Kurchatov Complex of Physical and Chemical Technologies, research project was started to investigate the possibility of obtaining clinically significant activities of the I-123, used in SPECT, at the I-2 accelerator. In this paper the results of the first experimental measurements of the main beam parameters, irradiation a gaseous Xe-124 target and following extraction of the I-123 radioisotope are presented. Based on these results, further steps for the modernization of the accelerator systems, as well as the design of the new target, in order to ensure the possibility of obtaining I-123 activities at the level of several GBq were developed.
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