Production of thorium-229 using helium nuclei
AssigneeUT-Battelle, LLC
InventorsSAED MIRZADEH, Marc Alan Garland
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method for producing 229Th includes the steps of providing 226Ra as a target material, and bombarding the target material with alpha particles, helium-3, or neutrons to form 229Th. When neutrons are used, the neutrons preferably include an epithermal neutron flux of at least 1×1013 n s−1·cm−2. 228Ra can also be bombarded with thermal and/or energetic neutrons to result in a neutron capture reaction to form 229Th. Using 230Th as a target material, 229Th can be formed using neutron, gamma ray, proton or deuteron bombardment.
Claims12
A method for producing ground state 229Th, comprising the steps of:
- providing a 226Ra comprising target material,
- bombarding said target material with helium nuclei from a helium nuclei source to form ground state 229Th, and
- controlling said helium nuclei source to produce said helium nuclei with an energy between 8 and 20 MeV.
A method for producing ground state 229Th, comprising the steps of:
- providing a 226Ra comprising target material,
- bombarding said target material with helium nuclei from a cyclotron nuclei source to form ground state 229Th, and
- controlling said cyclotron to produce said helium nuclei with an energy between 8 and 20 MeV.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.