Abstract
The use of radioisotopes in cancer therapy is becoming increasingly important. As a potential candidate for targeted alpha therapy, 230U (t1/2 = 20.8 d), the decay daughter of 230Pa (t1/2 = 17.4 d) is currently being investigated for cancer treatment. For radioisotopes to be used in biomedicine, they must be radiochemically pure and free from carrier interference. This can be challenging given their short half-life. Thus, radiological separation methods for harvesting isotopes for use in biomedicine must be simple, fast, and capable of obtaining the required purity levels. Herein, we demonstrate a new rapid method for the separation of 230U and 230Pa from a proton-irradiated 232Th metal target and from coproduced fission products with high recovery and purity. A dual-column approach was used, in which the first column was an anion exchange (AX) column and the second column was a DGA column. The MP-1 AX resin was used for the primary separation of the three major components (U, Pa, and Th, as well as fission products), and the DGA column was used for further purification of the separated 230U. The method is simple and allows for straightforward separation of U, Pa, Th, and fission products; also, the entire process from target dissolution to shipment of 230U could be completed in 3 days with an overall 230U recovery yield of 96 ± 3%. Additionally, separated 230Pa fractions can be used to harvest ingrown 230U after initial separation.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 5906-5912 |
| Number of pages | 7 |
| Journal | Analytical Chemistry |
| Volume | 96 |
| Issue number | 15 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Apr 16 2024 |
Funding
This research was supported by the US Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Isotope R&D and Production managed by the DOE Office of Nuclear Physics under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with UT-Battelle LLC. The authors are grateful to the staff of the ORNL Radiochemical Engineering Development Center for their support in the chemical separation of the actinide materials. Additionally, the authors would like to thank the University of Washington for producing and shipping Th targets to ORNL. Notice: This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the US Department of Energy (DOE). The US government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the US government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for US government purposes. The DOE will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan ( https://www.energy.gov/doe-public-access-plan ).