Review of cyclotron production and quality control of “High specific activity” radionuclides for biomedical, biological, industrial and environmental applications at INFN-LASA

At the “Radiochemistry Laboratory” of Accelerators and Applied Superconductivity Laboratory, LASA, a wide range of high specific activity radionuclides, RNs, have been produced in No Carrier Added form, for both basic research and application purposes. Use was made of the AVF proton cyclotron $(K=45)$ of Milan University (up to 1987). More recently, the irradiations were carried out at the Scanditronix MC40 cyclotron (⁠$K=38;$ p, d, He-4 and He-3) of JRC-Ispra, Italy, of the European Community. In order to optimize the irradiation conditions for radioisotope production, a series of thin- and thick-target excitation functions have been experimentally determined. For each RN, a specific radiochemical separation has been developed in order to obtain GBq (mCi) amounts of the radiotracers in “high specific activity” No Carrier Added form (NCA).