Progress in Accelerator Production of Important Medical Isotopes

With the rapid development of nuclear science and technology, medical radioisotopes play an increasingly important role in nuclear medicine, and are widely used in the diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, tumors and other diseases. Accelerator production of medical radioisotopes has the advantages of flexibility, efficiency, system safety and high nuclide activity, and is one of the important production methods to ensure the safe and stable supply of medical radioisotopes. In 2021, China Atomic Energy Authority together with seven other ministries, jointly released the “Medium - and Long Term Development Plan for Medical Isotopes (2021−2035)”, which clarifies that there are 14 important medical isotopes that China needs to focus on developing before 2035, of which 9 isotopes can be produced by accelerators. This article mainly introduces the production and application overview of accelerators for the 9 important medical isotopes listed in the plan. The 9 important medical isotopes include the imaging nuclides ¹²³I, ¹²⁴I, ⁶⁴Cu, ⁶⁸Ga, ⁸⁹Zr and the therapeutic nuclides ¹⁸⁶Re, ¹⁰³Pd, ²²⁵Ac ,²²³Ra .Among them,²²⁵Ac、⁶⁸Ge and ²²³Ra are the focus of isotope production in medium and high energy accelerators, and also are the main development trend of accelerator production radioisotopes. This study provides a comprehensive review of the nuclear properties, applications, reaction cross-sections, yields, and production methods of the diagnostic and therapeutic nuclides mentioned above, providing reference for the production of related nuclides.