Radionuclide Production

A radionuclide is an atom with an unstable nucleus, which is a nucleus characterized by

excess energy which is available to be imparted either to a newly-created radiation
particle within the nucleus, or else to an atomic electron. The radionuclide, in this
process, undergoes radioactive decay, and emits a gamma ray(s) and/or subatomic
particles. These particles constitute ionizing radiation. Radionuclides may occur
naturally, but can also be artificially produced.
Naturally occurring radionuclides fall into three categories: primordial radionuclides,
secondary radionuclides and cosmogenic radionuclides. Primordial radionuclides
originate mainly from the interiors of stars and, like uranium and thorium, are still present
because their half-lives are so long that they have not yet completely decayed. Secondary
radionuclides are radiogenic isotopes derived from the decay of primordial radionuclides.
They have shorter half-lives than primordial radionuclides. Cosmogenic isotopes, such
as carbon-14, are present because they are continually being formed in the atmosphere
due to cosmic rays.

Radionuclides are produced as an unavoidable side effect of nuclear and thermonuclear

explosions.
Trace radionuclides are those that occur in tiny amounts in nature either due to inherent
rarity, or to half-lives that are significantly shorter than the age of the Earth. Synthetic
isotopes are inherently not naturally occurring on Earth, but can be created by nuclear
reactions.

In nuclear medicine, radioisotopes are used for diagnosis, treatment, and research.
Radioactive chemical tracers emitting gamma rays or positrons can provide diagnostic
information about a person's internal anatomy and the functioning of specific organs.
This is used in some forms of tomography: single photon emission computed
tomography and positron emission tomography scanning.

All radionuclides commonly administered to the patients are artificially produced. Most
are produced by cyclotrons, nuclear reactors or radionuclide generators.

Nuclear reactors:
Specialized nuclear reactors used to produce clinically useful radionuclides from fission
products or neutron activation of stable target materials. Uranium 235 fission products
can be chemically separated from other fission products with essentially no stable
isotopes (carrier) of the radionuclide present. Concentration of these “carrier-free”
fission-produced radionuclides are very high. Radioisotopes produced with nuclear
reactors exploit the high flux of neutrons present. The neutrons activate elements placed
within the reactor. A typical product from a nuclear reactor is thallium-201 and iridium-
192. The elements that have a large propensity to take up the neutrons in the reactor are
said to have a high neutron cross-section

Cyclotrons:
Particle accelerators such as cyclotrons accelerate particles to bombard a target to
produce radionuclides. Cyclotrons accelerate protons at a target to produce positron
emitting radioisotopes which are neutron poor and therefore decay by positron emission
or electron capture. e.g. fluorine-18. Specialized hospital based cyclotrons have been
developed to produce positron emitting radionuclides for positron emission tomography
(PET). They are usually located near the PET imagers because of short half-lives of the
radionuclides produced.

Radionuclide generators:
Radionuclide generators contain a parent isotope that decays to produce a radioisotope.
The parent is usually produced in a nuclear reactor. The generator allows distribution of
short lived nuclides to centres remote from production site. Long lived parent nuclides
decays to daughter nuclide, which allows separation of daughter from parent. This
separation is achieved by difference in chemical properties such as charge.
A typical example is the technetium-99m generator used in nuclear medicine. The parent
produced in the reactor is molybdenum-99