Simulation study of excitation functions for cyclotron production of ^99mTc using TALYS code

Abstract

Simulation studies for cyclotron production of Technetium-99m ^99mTc) were conducted using a Nuclear Reaction Model Code (TALYS code) to generate reaction cross sections as function of proton bombardment energies for ¹⁰⁰Mo (p,2n)^99MTc reaction channel. The excitation functions data showed that an optimum proton energy range of 10 to 20 MeV was suitable for the production of ^99mTc. Reaction channels of competing products or contaminants were also investigated. For practical production of ^99mTc, the Mo-100 accelerator target must be enriched appropriately to reduce the levels of contaminants produced alongside the desired radionuclide. The trends and shapes of the excitation functions were similar to the EMPIRE Code simulation results.