Cyclotron and linac production of Ac-225

Radium needles that were once implanted into tumours as a cancer treatment are now obsolete and constitute a radioactive waste problem, as their half-life is 1600 years. The reduction of radium by photonuclear transmutation by bombarding Ra-226 with high-energy photons from a medical linear accelerator (linac) has been investigated. A linac dose of 2800 Gy produced about 2.4 MBq (64 μCi) of Ra-225, which decays to Ac-225 and can then be used for ‘Targeted Alpha Therapy’ (TAT) of cancer. This result, while consistent with theoretical calculations, is far too low to be of practical use unless much larger quantities of radium are irradiated. The increasing application of Ac-225 for cancer therapy indicates the potential need for its increased production and availability. This paper investigates the possibility of producing of Ac-225 in commercial quantities, which could potentially reduce obsolete radioactive material and displace the need for expensive importation of Ac-225 from the USA and Russia in the years ahead. Scaled up production of Ac-225 could theoretically be achieved by the use of a high current cyclotron or linac. Production specifications are determined for a linac in terms of current, pulse length and frequency, as well as an examination of other factors such as radiation issues and radionuclei separation. Yields are compared with those calculated for the Australian National Cyclotron in Sydney.