226Ra(p, xn)反应制备225Ac的辐照工艺模拟研究

Simulation Study on Irradiation Process for 225Ac Production via 226Ra(p, xn) Reaction

  • 摘要: 锕-225(225Ac)是当前靶向α治疗领域最具应用前景的治疗核素之一,利用中低能质子辐照226Ra靶,经226Ra(p,2n)225Ac反应直接制备225Ac,是近年来备受关注的候选加速器生产路线之一。本文基于已有实验截面数据,建立了226Ra(p,xn)反应的FLUKA蒙特卡罗模拟模型,并开展薄靶分道截面提取、实验数据校核以及厚靶条件下辐照工艺参数模拟。结果表明,FLUKA能较好地再现226Ra(p,2n)225Ac、226Ra(p,n)226Ac和226Ra(p,3n)224Ac反应截面的能量依赖趋势,其中反应截面比σ(p,n)/σ(p,2n)的模拟值与实验值在关键能区内符合较好,可用于226Ac/225Ac相对生成关系分析。厚靶模拟结果表明,13~14.8 MeV能区可在保证225Ac产额的同时抑制高能侧224Ac的生成;辐照6~10 d有利于提高225Ac累积产额,并降低224Ac/226Ac相对比例;冷却8~10 d可进一步降低226Ac/225Ac比值。以100 μA质子束流辐照226RaCl2靶为例,在13~14.8 MeV能区辐照10 d冷却8 d后,225Ac及其衰变链子体对总活度的贡献约为95.6%,表明冷却后期辐射场主要由225Ac衰变链主导,此时225Ac产额为0.77 Ci。上述模拟可为226Ra靶制备225Ac的工艺优化提供参数参考。

     

    Abstract: 225Ac is one of the most promising therapeutic radionuclides for targeted alpha therapy. Its decay chain emits multiple alpha particles with high linear energy transfer, which makes it suitable for the treatment of small tumors and metastatic lesions. However, the wider application of 225Ac radiopharmaceuticals is still limited by the shortage of stable and scalable production routes. Proton irradiation of 226Ra through the 226Ra(p,2n)225Ac reaction is one of the candidate accelerator production routes that has received attention in recent years, because it can be performed with low to medium energy cyclotrons and can avoid the long-lived 227Ac impurity commonly associated with high-energy thorium spallation. Nevertheless, the neighboring reactions 226Ra(p,n)226Ac and 226Ra(p,3n)224Ac can produce important radioactive impurities. These impurities affect the radionuclidic purity, cooling strategy, radiation field, and subsequent separation process. Therefore, in this work, the feasibility of 225Ac production through the 226Ra(p,xn) reaction is evaluated, and a reasonable irradiation process window is determined based on FLUKA simulations constrained by experimental cross-section data. In this study, a FLUKA Monte Carlo model was established for proton irradiation of a 226Ra target. Thin-target simulations were first performed to extract the partial cross sections of the 226Ra(p,2n)225Ac, 226Ra(p,n)226Ac, and 226Ra(p,3n)224Ac reactions. The calculated excitation functions were compared with available experimental data and recommended cross-section trends. The relative cross-section ratio σ(p,n)/σ(p,2n) was also analyzed to evaluate the ability of FLUKA to describe the competition between the main product channel and the impurity channel. On this basis, thick-target simulations were carried out for selected energy windows, irradiation times, and cooling times. The activities of 224Ac, 225Ac, and 226Ac were extracted, and the activity ratios of 224Ac/225Ac and 226Ac/225Ac were used as the main impurity indicators. The evolution of decay-chain nuclides during cooling was further analyzed to evaluate the total activity and the implications for separation and purification. The results show that FLUKA reproduces the general energy dependence of the main 226Ra(p,xn) reaction channels. Although the absolute calculated cross sections are higher than some experimental values, the calculated σ(p,n)/σ(p,2n) agrees well with experimental data in the key energy region. These results indicate that FLUKA can provide a reasonable description of the relative yields of 226Ac and 225Ac. The thick-target results show that the 13-14.8 MeV energy window is favorable for 225Ac production. In this region, 226Ra(p,2n)225Ac reaction is effectively used, while the high-energy side of the 226Ra(p,3n)224Ac reaction is suppressed. The simulation also shows that an irradiation time of 6-10 d improves the accumulation of 225Ac and reduces the relative contribution of 224Ac and 226Ac. For a 226RaCl2 target irradiated by a 100 μA proton beam in the 13-14.8 MeV energy window, the calculated 225Ac activity reaches 1.34 Ci at the end of 10 d of irradiation. After 8 d of cooling, the activity of 225Ac and its decay daughters accounts for about 95.6% of the total activity, which shows that the later-stage radiation field is mainly governed by the 225Ac decay chain. The cooling analysis further shows that 224Ac and 226Ac behave differently. 224Ac is mainly controlled by the incident energy because it is produced through the high-energy 226Ra(p,3n) channel and has a short half-life. It decays rapidly during cooling and has limited influence on the final radionuclidic purity of 225Ac. In contrast, 226Ac is more sensitive to the cooling time. The activity ratio of 226Ac/225Ac decreases almost exponentially with cooling time. When activity ratio of 226Ac/225Ac is 10−3, it can be used as a reference criterion for high radionuclidic purity, a cooling time of about 8-10 d is needed, depending on the irradiation time. The results also show that the total activity does not decrease as fast as 224Ac alone, because 225Ac and its short-lived daughters, such as 221Fr, 217At, 213Bi, 213Po, and 209Pb, dominate the total activity after 8 d of cooling. The recommended process window is 13-14.8 MeV for the incident proton energy, 6-10 d for the irradiation time, and 8-10 d for the cooling time. This window offers a balanced condition between 225Ac yield and impurity control. The results also indicate that the separation and purification process should be arranged after sufficient cooling, and the continuous ingrowth of 225Ac decay daughters should be considered during product quality control. This study provides useful parameter references for the engineering development of accelerator-based 225Ac production using 226Ra targets.

     

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