Strontium-82 and Future Germanium-68 Production at the ARRONAX Facility

The ARRONAX cyclotron is fully operational since the end of 2010. It delivers projectiles (p, d, α) at high energy (up to 70 MeV for protons) and high intensity(2*375μA for protons). The main fields of application of ARRONAX are radionuclide production for nuclear medicine and irradiation of inert or living materials for radiolysis and radio-biology studies. A large part of the beam time will be used to produce radionuclides for targeted radionuclide therapy (copper-67, scandium-47 and astatine-211) as well as for PET imaging (scandium-44, copper-64, strontium-82 for rubidium-82 generators, and germanium-68 for gallium-68 generators). Since June 2012, large scale production of 82Sr has started with rubidium chloride (RbCl) targets. Several improvements are being explored which consist of changing the target material from RbCl to Rb metal and introducing an additional target behind the rubidium assembly. Thus, a target alloy of nickel/gallium for germanium-68 production has been developed. It is obtained by electroplating and exhibits a better thermal behavior than the natural gallium target used in most production facilities.