Target irradiation facility and targetry development at 160 MeV proton beam of Moscow linac

• Published in: Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section A, Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment Vol. 438; no. 1; pp. 173 - 179
• Main Authors: Zhuikov, Boris L., Kokhanyuk, Vladimir M., Konyakhin, Nickolay A., Vincent, John
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01-12-1999
• Subjects: Chemical procedure; Encapsulation of target; Handling of target; Heating of target; Liquid target; Rubidium; Strontium; Strontium; Liquid target; Handling of target; Heating of target; Chemical procedure; Rubidium; Encapsulation of target
• ISSN: 0168-9002; 1872-9576
• DOI: 10.1016/S0168-9002(99)00672-5

A facility has been built and successfully operated with the 160 MeV proton beam of Moscow Meson factory LINAC, Institute for Nuclear Research (INR) of Russian Academy of Science, Troitsk. The facility was created for various isotope production goals as well as for fundamental nuclear investigations at high intensity beam (100
μA and more). An important part of the facility targetry system is a high-intensity beam monitoring collimator device. Measurements of the temperature distribution between collimator sectors, cooling water flow and temperature, and the beam current, provide an opportunity to compute beam losses and beam position. The target holder design allows easy insertion by manipulator and simultaneous bombardment of several different targets of various types and forms, and variation of proton energy on each target over a wide range below 160
MeV. The main target utilized for commercial
82Sr isotope production is metallic rubidium in a stainless-steel container. A regular wet chemistry method has been used in this process to recover radio-strontium. A new targetry technique based on adsorption of radio-strontium from liquid metallic rubidium has been explored and is under development. It was found that strontium may be extracted from molten rubidium on several metallic or oxide flat surfaces, with the temperature of the sorbing material about 130–170°C, and the temperature of the vessel with metallic rubidium about 240–270°C. This makes it possible to provide “on-line”
82Sr production and extraction on a very high intensity beam with the use of circulating liquid rubidium targets. The same idea has been found to be fruitful to extract “on-line” and selectively a number of radionuclides directly from liquid lead targets by chemosorption processes.