Study on calculation of optimal irradiation time for Iodine-125 production at Dalat Nuclear Reactor

Abstract

Iodine-125 is an important radiopharmaceutical used in radiation immunity diagnostic kits, thyroid radiography, prostate cancer treatment, and brachytherapy to treat some malignant, brain tumors. Iodine-125 is produced from Xenon gas irradiated by thermal neutron in a nuclear reactor. At present, Iodine-125 has not yet been produced in Vietnam. Optimising the irradiation time is the first important step to carry out a successful production. In this work, we have programmed and calculated the optimal irradiation time for production of Iodine-125 from the natural Xenon and the enriched Xenon target irradiated by the thermal neutron of Dalat Nuclear Reactor.