The Activator


The Transmuter provides the activation of  short lived isotopes for Medical Applications.

Radio-nuclides are extensively used for medical applications (and also,  more generally, in Industry and Research).

In Medicine are two important applications of these elements:

  1. Diagnostic applications, as "tracing" elements: they are directly detectable within the patient because of their spontaneous radioactive decay. In this type of application, in order to minimize the integrated radio-toxicity, the mean life of these isotopes should be short (ideally, no longer than the examination time).

     2.  Cancer therapy applications, for which doses much larger are required. This isotopes must have also a relatively short mean life, since they are injected or                   implanted in the body of the patient.

In both cases, the main supply for these isotopes are today Nuclear Reactors or Particle Accelerators. On the other hand, the simplicity of the Activator and its relatively modest cost and dimension could promote "local" production of short-lived radio-isotopes, eliminating transportation and storage costs.
The high efficiency in neutron capture permits to produce the required amount of the radio-isotope. The half life of this isotope can be now shorter, as the hospital can ask and receive the exact amount of the isotope in less time, minimizing the dose to be injected into the patient.
In addition, several isotopes which are difficult to produce by activation with the low energy neutrons of an ordinary Reactor, can be produced using the wide energy spectrum of the neutrons in the Activator. This is the case of, widely used,  99mTc. This isotope is nowadays extracted from the Fission Fragments of spent Nuclear Fuel using chemical procedures. Using the Activator, this popular radio-isotope can be obtained instead from Molybdenum driven by a modest neutron source , reducing the total amount of additional, useless, radioactive substances.


A practical example: The Iodine for thyroid examination.

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