Technical Meeting on Commercial Products and Services of
Research Reactors

28 June–2 July, 2010, IAEA, Vienna

Radioisotope production to service different sectors of economic significance constitutes an important ongoing activity of many national nuclear programs. Radioisotopes, formed by nuclear reactions on targets in a reactor or cyclotron, require further processing in almost all cases to obtain them in a form suitable for use. The availability of short-lived radionuclides from radionuclide generators provides an inexpensive and convenient alternative to in-house radioisotope production facilities such as cyclotrons and reactors. The reactor offers large volume for irradiation, simultaneous irradiation of several samples, economy of production and possibility to produce a wide variety of radioisotopes. The accelerator-produced isotopes relatively constitute a smaller percentage of total use.

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