Actinium isotope cross sections for 226Ra(p,xn) reactions measured at low energies

D Horn; E T Rand; R Perron; A Abushusheh; M Facina; D Gendron; K McCaugherty; J Sheardown

doi:10.1016/j.apradiso.2024.111427

Actinium isotope cross sections for ²²⁶Ra(p,xn) reactions measured at low energies

Appl Radiat Isot. 2024 Oct:212:111427. doi: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2024.111427. Epub 2024 Jul 16.

Authors

D Horn¹, E T Rand², R Perron², A Abushusheh², M Facina², D Gendron², K McCaugherty², J Sheardown²

Affiliations

¹ Canadian Nuclear Laboratories, Chalk River, Ontario, K0J1J0, Canada. Electronic address: dag.horn@cnl.ca.
² Canadian Nuclear Laboratories, Chalk River, Ontario, K0J1J0, Canada.

PMID: 39182352
DOI: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2024.111427

Abstract

Cross sections for production of the medical isotope ²²⁵Ac by the ²²⁶Ra(p,2n) reaction have not previously been measured in fine steps over the relevant energy region, and no measurements are presently available in the literature for the actinium contaminant isotopes created by the adjacent ²²⁶Ra(p,n)²²⁶Ac and ²²⁶Ra(p,3n)²²⁴Ac reactions. We report thin-target cross-section measurements for production of ²²⁴Ac and ²²⁵Ac by protons of 15.1-16.8 MeV incident on radium. An upper limit for the ²²⁶Ac cross section is also reported.

Keywords: Ac-224; Ac-225; Ac-226; Actinium; Cross section; Radium target.