How scientists discovered a new way to produce actinium-225, a rare medical radioisotope

For decades, one place in the world has produced the majority of actinium-225: DOE's Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). Even with two other international facilities contributing smaller amounts, all three combined can only create enough actinium-225 to treat fewer than 100 patients annually. That's not enough to run anything but the most preliminary of clinical trials.

To fulfill its mission of producing isotopes that are in short supply, the DOE Office of Science's Isotope Program is leading efforts to find new ways to produce actinium-225. Through the DOE Isotope Program's Tri-Lab Research Effort to Provide Accelerator-Produced 225Ac for Radiotherapy project, ORNL, LANL, and DOE's Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) have developed a new, extremely promising process for producing this isotope.

Only a few accelerators in the country create high enough energy proton beams to generate actinium-225. BNL's Linear Accelerator and LANL's Neutron Science Center are two of them. While both mainly focus on other nuclear research, they create plenty of excess protons for producing isotopes.

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https://phys.org/news/2018-06-scientists-actinium-rare-medical-radioisotope.html#jCp 

Source: Phys.org