Deuteron induced reactions on tellurium: An alternative for production of I-123?

New experimental cross sections in the 13–21.5 MeV domain of deuteron induced reactions on Te complementing the 35-year-old publication by Zaidi et al. [1] were determined. Excitation functions for the 121,123,124,125,126,128,130,131I-radioisotopes and 131gTe were obtained through stacked foil activation method. Values for 128,121I and 131Te are the first ever presented for natTe. A comparison of our new cross-section values is made to the values reported in the earlier study where relevant and with the theoretical excitation functions reconstructed from the reaction cross sections available in the TENDL-2017 (TALYS 1.6 calculations) on-line library. For discussion of the possibility as a production route the yields of 123,124,125,126,131I are calculated from fits to our measurements, complemented by theoretical values. Contributing reactions and contaminations in selected energy windows are discussed and compared to earlier conclusions.