Medical therapies, using alpha-emitting isotopes, have shown promising results and significant potential for treatment of cancer thus the demand for these isotopes is rapidly increasing.  One isotope of interest is the alpha emitter Ra-223 (t1/2 = 11.4 days) which is being used with good success for pain palliation in bone cancer patients.  The only viable source of Ra-223 is from the beta decay of relatively long-lived Ac-227 (t1/2 = 21.8 years) to a shorter-lived Th-227 (t1/2 = 18.7 days) which alpha decays to Ra-223.  A significant quantity of Ac-227 was in inventory at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the form of stainless steel-encapsulated actinium-beryllium neutron sources, which no longer had an identified mission.  The stainless steel encapsulations were mechanically breached, the Ac-Be pellets were dissolved using nitric acid, and the Ac-227 was separated from the beryllium and other contaminants using anion and cation exchange columns, including Eichrom DGA resin.  The separation, purification, and quality assurance data will be presented.

Purification of actinium-227 from Ac-Be neutron sources for medical isotope production

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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