Cyclotron production of “very high specific activity” platinum radiotracers in No Carrier Added form

At the “Radiochemistry Laboratory” of Accelerators and Applied Superconductivity Laboratory, LASA, several production and quality assurance methods for short-lived and high specific activity radionuclides, have been developed. Presently, the irradiations are carried out at the Scanditronix MC40 cyclotron (⁠$K=38;$ p, d, He-4 and He-3) of JRC-Ispra, Italy, of the European Community, while both chemical purity and specific activity determination are carried out at the TRIGA MARK II research reactor of University of Pavia and at LASA itself. In order to optimize the irradiation conditions for platinum radiotracer production, both thin- and thick-target excitation function of $natOs(α,xn)$ nuclear reactions were measured. A very selective radiochemical separation to obtain Pt radiotracers in No Carrier Added form, has been developed. Both real specific activity and chemical purity of radiotracer, have been determined by neutron activation analysis and atomic absorption spectrometry. An Isotopic Dilution Factor (IDF) of the order of 50 is achieved.