Producing Ac-225 from Ra-226 for applications in nuclear medicine

Nuclear medicine is a very useful tool focusing on diagnostic and therapeutic applications of radioisotopes. The purpose of this work is to develop new methods for treating widespread diseases. Targets with high performance should be developed and characterised before being used in irradiation experiments. This PhD project discusses the proton irradiation of Ra-226 to produce Ac-225 using the Ra-226(p,2n) reaction. Our goal is to develop solid-state and/or liquid targets for Ra-226, with a particular focus on reducing Rn-222 emissions. A realistic solution for the sustainable production of Ac-225 will also be investigated. These experiments will be held between two institutions namely KU Leuven and Joint Research Centre.