Monte Carlo simulation for reactor calculations to medical terbium-161 production

TRIGA (Training, Research, and Isotope production General Atomics) facilities are research reactors widely used for neutron activation analysis and several neutron-related experiments and applications due to the range of thermal neutron fluxes produced. Neutron fluxes in TRIGA reactors can also be used for radionuclide production, e.g. to generate a new radioactive source for technical applications or medical isotope supply. Neutron activation technique is commonly used, involving exposing an originally non-radioactive material to neutron radiation to induce nuclear reactions and produce specific radionuclides. The ENEA TRIGA RC-1 reactor is involved in the EU-funded SECURE Project, aiming at studying the feasibility of Italian local production of radionuclides for medical applications. In particular, the ENEA team is investigating the possibility to produce Terbium-161 (161Tb), a promising isotope for targeted radiation therapy favourably better than Lutetium-177 (177Lu) currently used in cancer therapy, through neutron activation of Gadolinium target highly enriched in Gadolinium-160 (160Gd) exploiting the reaction channel 160Gd(n,γ) 161Gd(β-)161Tb. Monte Carlo simulation for radiation transport has been used for reactor calculations to determine neutron fluxes and to obtain correction factors to be applied to the sample under irradiation to obtain more realistic results.

Si tratta di una raccolta di 31 articoli che illustrano i principali risultati ottenuti grazie all’utilizzo degliimpianti CRESCO/ENEAGRID HPC nel corso del 2023.