Production of I-123
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United States Patent [191 L I I I 3,971,697 Blue 1451 July 27, 1976 PRODUCTION OF lsnI 3,018,159 111962 Silverman ........................... 423/249 3,694,313 911972 Blue et al .............................. 176116 Inventor: James W. Blue, Bay Village, Ohio OTHER PUBLICATIONS Assignee: The United States of America as represnted by the National Bulletin of the Chemical Society of Japan, Feb. 1970, Aeronautics and space vol. 43, No. 2, p. 576, Kat0 et al. Administration, Washington, D.C. Isotopes and Radiation Technology, vol. 4, No. 3, Filed: July 12, 1973 1967, pp. 275-280. Uses of Cyclotrons in Chemistry, Metallurgy and Biol- Appl. No.: 380,046 ogy, Proc. Conf., Sept. 1969, pp. 138-148, Blue et al. Related U.S. Application Data Continuation-in-part of Ser. No. 247,434. April 25, Primary Examiner-Harvey E. Behrend 1972. Attorney, Agent, or Firm-N. T. Musial; G. E. Shook; John R. Manning U.S. CI. .................................... 176111; 176116; 176114; 2501400; 2501429; 2501492 R [571 ABSTRACT Int. C1.* ........................................... G21G 1/10 Field of Search .......................... 17611 1, 16, 14; Bombarding a cesium heat pipe with high energy par- 4231249; 2501429, 400, 492, 432 ticles causes a spallation reaction which produces va- pors of lZ3Xeand contaminants. The contaminants are References Cited removed in a dry ice cold trap while the con- denses in a liquid nitrogen trap where it decays to UNITED STATES PATENTS "',. 2,795,482 611957 McNabney .......................... 4231249 6 Claims, 1 Drawing Figure 3,971,697 3,971,697 1 2 PRODUCTION OF 1231 DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT ORIGIN OF THE INVENTION Referring now to the drawing there is shown a target The invention described herein was made by an em- assembly which extends into a beam duct 12 of a high ployee of the United States Government and may be energy accelerator. It is contemplated the target assem- manufactured and used by or for the Government for bly 10 may be used with the LOS ALAMOS MESON governmental purposes without the payment of any FACILITY, known as LAMF. Another high energy royalties thereon or therefor. accelerator located in Canada, called TRIUMF, would STATEMENT OF COPENDENCY lo be a suitable source of high energy particles. The beam in the duct 12 from such accelerators is characterized This application is a continuation-in-part of applica- by high energy between 200 MeV and 2000 MeV and tion serial No. 247,434 which was filed Apr. 25, 1972. high current. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The target assembly 10 is in the form of a heat pipe l5 which comprises a tubular container 14 having a supply This invention is concerned with the production of 16 of cesium-133 in the end which extends into the high purity radioiodine for thyroid measurements and beam duct 12. The opposite end of the tube 14 which as a general radionuclide. The invention is particularly protrudes from the duct 12 is surrounded by cooling directed to the utilization of a heat pipe in the produc- coils 18. A suitable cooling fluid, such as water, is cir- tion of radioisotopes using very intense particle accel- *O culated through the coils 18. erators. A porous metal plug 20 is mounted in the container Radioactive iodine is used for medical diagnostic 14 adjacent to the cooling coils 18. A wick 22 extends studies. The isotope 1311 has been used for this purpose along the inner wall of the tube 14 between the plug 20 because of its availability. The radioisotope lBI is con- 25 and the cesium 16. sidered much superior to the I3lI in studies where the A tube 24 connects the inside of the container 14 to amount of radiation exposure to a patient is of prime a cold trap 26 through a valve 28. Tygon tubing has concern. Because of the shorter half-life and the decay been satisfactory for the tubular conduit 24. The cold by electron capture, the radiation exposure received by trap 26 comprises a U-tube 30 immersed in a coolant in the patient from IZ3I is about one-fortieth that of an 3o an insulated container 32. A one-fourth inch copper equal amount of l3II. U-tube surrounded by solid COz in a Dewar has been lBI is also superior to 1311 because the gamma ray satisfactory. The dry ice maintains a trap 26 at a tem- energy of lZ3Iis 159 KEV compared to 364 KEV of 1311. perature of -79°C. Collimators operate more effectively with this lower A valve 34 connects the dry ice trap 26 to a second energy. Also the collimators used with lZ3I are less cold trap 36. A one-fourth inch copper U-tube 38 im- bulky. 35 mersed in liquid nitrogen in a Dewar 40 has been satis- A method of lZ3I production is disclosed in U.S. Pat. factory for the cold trap No. 3,694,3 13. The method disclosed in this patent has 36. The liquid nitrogen main- been quite successful in terms of freedom from radio- tains the trap 36 at a temperature of -196°C. A valve active impurities. However, the method is not capable 42 is used to isolate the trap 36 or connect it to a vac- ' of handling the power densities involved in using high 40 uum pump 44. energy, high current machines. In operation, a beam of high energy protons identi- fied by the arrow in the duct 12 penetrates the tubular SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION container 14 and strikes the cesium-I33 in the target According to the present invention cesium is used assembly 10. The beam penetrating the cesium causes both as the working fluid of a heat pipe and as the 45 what is known in nuclear physics as a spallation reac- target material for high energy protons. A spallation tion which produces Iz3Xe according to the reaction reaction produces lZ3Xeand many radioactive contami- 13Ts (p,p 10n)Iz3Xe. nants which pass from the heat pipe to low temperature This is only one of a number of reactions that lead to traps where the undesirable contaminants are removed. significant impurities. Some of these reactions are 133C~ The xenon is held for a period of time sufficient for it to 50 (p, 2p 8n)1241,'=Cs (p, 2p 7n)lZ5I,133Cs(p, 2p 6n)lZ6I, decay to lZ3l. 13Ts (p, 3p 8n)lZ3Te,lmCs (p, 4p 6n)Iz4Sb. To produce these spallation reactions the incident OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION proton must have an energy greater than 200 MeV. It is, therefore, an object of the invention to produce The first three reactions produce the radioactive io- the radioisotope IBI with high energy particles from 55 dines Iz4I, lZ5I and IZsI. These radioactive iodines would very intense particle accelerators. seriously contaminate the desired lZ3I because they Another object of the invention is to produce lZ3I cannot be chemically separated. The other impurities using a heat pipe that is bombarded with high energy formed by the above listed reactions could be sepa- particles. rated chemically because they are different elements. These and other objects of te invention will be appar- 60 However, this is not necessary in the heat pipe device ent from the specification which follows and from the because all of the imwrities have a lower vapor pres- drawing wherein like numerals are used throughout to sure than the desired lz3Xe and can be coliected on identify like parts. cool surfaces at the heat rejection end of the heat pipe. Radioactive isotopes of iodine, tellurium, antimony, DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 65 tin, indium, and cesium are all contaminants. The drawing is a schematic view of an apparatus for All of the isotopes of hydrogen and helium could be producing radioactive iodine in accordance with the accelerated to hundreds of MeV and produce the de- invention. sired spallation reaction. An example would be 13Ts(cy, 3,97 1,697 3 4 3p Pln)"%e. The same contaminants as produced by fer properties, such as enthalpy, melting point, boiling proton bombardment would also be produced. point and vapor pressure-temperature curve. No other The beam penetrating the cesium-I33 deposits en- element has these properties together with the nuclear ergy in the cesium that heats this target to the point requirements as required by the target material. where it vaporizes. All charged particle beams lose 5 Although the preferred embodiment has been shown energy by ionizing and exciting electrons on the atoms and described it is contemplated that various structural of the stopping material, such as cesium. The individual modifications may be made to the disclosed apparatus particles that make up the beam actually lose velocity without departing from the spirit of the invention or the in a continuous manner. This energy lost by the beam scope of the subjoined claims. By way of example, it is appears as heat, and if the beam current is large enough 10 contemplated that different trap configurations could this heat will melt metallic cesium and vaporize it. The be utilized. The trap 26 could be a chemical trap, such vapor is transported to the end of the tubular chamber as hot silver, to remove radioiodine impurities. The 14 where it is cooled by the cooling coils 18. The tem- IznXe trap 36 could work on the absorption principle. perature at the hot end of the heat pipe is 670°C which The trap 34 could also contain a pharmaceutical is the boiling point of cesium. The temperature at the 15 compound that would become tagged or labeled when cold end is above the melting point and below the boil- the xenon decays to iodine.