A remotely-operated liquid water target system for harvesting radioisotopes at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory (NSCL) was designed and constructed as the initial step in proof-of-principle experiments to harvest useful radioisotopes from the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB). FRIB will be a new national user facility for nuclear science to be completed in 2020 at which radioisotopes can be collected synergistically from the water in cooling-loops for the primary fragmentation target. To develop the radiochemical expertise required to harvest long-lived radioisotopes of interest in this environment, the water target system was constructed and has been successfully used to collect beams of 24Na and 67Cu ions produced at the NSCL. Initial experiments included collection of an analyzed 24Na test beam and collection and extraction of analyzed 67Cu, a radioisotope with medical applications. The collected radioisotopes were characterized using low-background gamma spectroscopy at both Hope College and Washington University. The analyzed 67Cu, counted offline, indicated that over 80% of the beam produced at the focal plane was delivered into the water cell. Analysis of the extraction technique indicated over 95% of the delivered copper isotope was successfully removed from the water, and made available for antibody labeling. The final test run, where 67Cu was delivered with a higher rate of unanalyzed beam, contained a cocktail of contaminant beam particles that had to be radiochemically separated from the isotope of interest. The unanalyzed 67Cu collection, with a beam rate ~100 times more than the analyzed 67Cu collection, required circulation of the water in the target during beam collection to minimize localized heating. Preliminary results from each of these experiments will be presented.

Harvesting radioisotopes at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory

248th National Meeting (2014)

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