The role of chemistry in accelerator-based production and separation of radionuclides as basis for radiolabelled compounds for medical applications

Radiochemical separations used in large scale routine production of diagnostic and therapeutic radionuclides at a particle accelerator for patient care are briefly outlined. The role of chemistry at various stages of development of a production route of a novel radionuclide, namely nuclear data measurement, high-current targetry, chemical processing and quality control of the product, is discussed in detail. Special attention is paid to production of non-standard positron emitters (e.g. Sc-44g, Cu-64, Ga-68, etc.) at a cyclotron and novel therapeutic radionuclides (e.g. Cu-67, Ac-225, etc.) at an accelerator. Some typical examples of radiochemical methods involved are presented.