Cyclotron-based rhenium-186 production using proton beam of up to 50 MeV

Abstract

Rhenium-186 (186Re) radioisotope has been suggested for palliative radiotherapy of bone metastic cancer patients and radiosynovectomy in nuclear medicine. Currently 186Re has been mostly produced using neutron activation in nuclear reactors, whereas cyclotron-based production has not been well explored. In this paper, we theoretically propose cyclotron-based proton beams of up to 50 MeV for 186Re production. By Employing the TALYS 2017 codes, we calculated nuclear cross-section for (p,n) nuclear reaction and then buit Matlab codes for the End-of-Bombardment (EOB) yield calculations of 186W(p,n)186Re nuclear reaction while the predicted impurities were calculated for (p,2n), (p,np), (p,α) and (p,d) nuclear reactions respectively. The TALYS calculated cross-sections indicated that the threshold energy for 186W(p,n)186Re nuclear reaction is 8 MeV. The maximum calculated EOB yield for 186W(p,n)186Re reaction at 50 MeV was 93.64 kBq/µAh which agreed with experimental data published elsewhere. The threshold energies for the (p,2n), (p,np), (p,α) and (p,d) were 7.58, 7.23, 2.0 and 4.99 MeV respectively. In addition, two radionuclides, i.e. 185W and 183mRe as well as two stable isotopes, i.e. 185Re and 184W were predicted to be the main impurities in the 186Re production. This study can be used as a reference for future 186Re production when proton beams of up to 50 MeV are employed.