High purity 47Sc production using high-energy photons and natural vanadium targets

Mathew S Snow; Ari Foley; Jessica L Ward; Mathew T Kinlaw; Jon Stoner; Kevin P Carney

doi:10.1016/j.apradiso.2021.109934

High purity ⁴⁷Sc production using high-energy photons and natural vanadium targets

Appl Radiat Isot. 2021 Dec:178:109934. doi: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2021.109934. Epub 2021 Sep 4.

Authors

Mathew S Snow¹, Ari Foley², Jessica L Ward², Mathew T Kinlaw², Jon Stoner³, Kevin P Carney²

Affiliations

¹ Idaho National Laboratory, 1765 N. Yellowstone Hwy, Idaho Falls, ID, 83415. USA. Electronic address: mathew.snow@inl.gov.
² Idaho National Laboratory, 1765 N. Yellowstone Hwy, Idaho Falls, ID, 83415. USA.
³ Idaho Accelerator Center, 1500 Alvin Ricken Drive, Pocatello, ID, 83201, USA.

PMID: 34598038
DOI: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2021.109934

Abstract

Scandium-47 (⁴⁷Sc) is of high value for targeted radiotherapy and theranostics; we report a novel, cost-effective approach to produce high-purity ⁴⁷Sc via photonuclear reactions with natural vanadium. Irradiation at 20 MeV photon end-point energy produces >99.998% pure ⁴⁷Sc, while irradiation at 38 MeV produces 98.8 ± 1.6% pure ⁴⁷Sc. Experimental data suggest producing greater than 100 mCi (3700 MBq) of ⁴⁷Sc using this approach may be feasible. Future research into refinement and scale-up to support pre-clinical research is recommended.

Keywords: Bremsstrahlung; Cancer therapy; Isotope production; Photonuclear; Sc-47; Theranostics.