ORIGINAL RESEARCH Production of 16 O( 3 He,p) 18 F and 20 Ne(d,a) 18 F Short-Lived Radioisotopes with a Plasma Focus S. M. Sadat Kiai • S. Adlparvar • S. Sheibani • M. Elahi • A. Safarien • S. Farhangi • A. A. Dabirzadeh • M. M. Khalaj • Y. Vosoughi • A. Moslehi • S. Shaﬁei • E. Edalatkhah • Y. Kasesaz • S. Alhooie • F. Bagiyan • M. Ardestani • A. Kashani • F. Zahedi Published online: 7 April 2011 Ó Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2011 Abstract Mather type plasma focus with the bank energy, 150 kJ (30 kV, 333 lF), was studied for the induced activity of 18 F, a short-lived radioisotopes which is a b ? emitter with 511 keV of gamma rays and has a half-life t 1/2 = 110 min, through 16 O( 3 He,p) 18 F and 20 Ne(d,a) 18 F nuclear reactions. The results of simulated numerical computations show that activities of 3.786 9 10 10 Bq and 6.632 9 10 10 Bq were found for 16 O( 3 He,p) 18 F and 20 Ne(d,a) 18 F reactions, respectively. The calculations were carried out for the same initial and ﬁnal energies conditions, when Plasma focus works with 150 kJ at the repetition rate of 1 Hz and for 120 min of running time. According to the simulated results, the activity of 20 Ne(d,a) 18 F had an increase because the projectile ion mass ‘‘deuteron’’ was lighter than the 3 He which resulted in the higher induced voltage and the number of projectile ions. Keywords Mather type plasma focus  Current sheath times and speeds  Induced voltage  Cross-sectional ﬁtting  Ion projectiles  Activity determinations Introduction From the past experiment, it has been proven that the plasma focus (PF) devices have the ability to produce hot and dense plasma necessary for nuclear reactions. In recent years, theoretical and experimental works demonstrated that PF device can be used in the production of short-lived radio- isotopes (SLRs) such as 18 F, 15 O, 13 N, and 11 C, used in Positron Emission Tomography (PET) [1–4]. A typical amount of SLRs used in PET diagnostics can be estimated as 1-40 MBq, the amount needs to be more attention. The higher activities for SLRs mean that higher nuclear reaction rate is needed for which especial facility has to be though. For the SLRs, a low and high Z materials as the, projectile and target is needed. Experiments have shown that endoge- nous production of SLRs provides higher efﬁciency and a better handling of activated material out of the reactor. Among these organic SLRs, 18 F has the higher usage in the process of medical imaging. Up to now, different authors reported producing up to few kBq of different SLRs by small PF with moderate repetition frequency [3], except one with 150 kJ of bank energy successfully pro- duced 1 Ci of 18 F in 2 h of operation and with repetition rate of 1 Hz through nuclear reaction 16 O( 3 He,p) 18 F[5]. Having designed a Mather type PF of few ten’s of kJ and to test our simulated method reliablity in mind, it is desire to concentrate the design criteria on the PF of 150 kJ already in operation for the production 18 F. The basic idea will be that, for the same operational conditions; bank energy, electrodes, and the working pressure, two nuclear reactions will be considered; 16 O( 3 He,p) 18 F and 20 Ne(d,a) 18 F. Designing conditions and the activities will be determine and presented. Method of Calculations A typical PF Conceptual design for producing SLRs has been discussed elsewhere. Here, we will present in each S. M. Sadat Kiai (&)  S. Adlparvar  S. Sheibani  M. Elahi  A. Safarien  S. Farhangi  A. A. Dabirzadeh  M. M. Khalaj  Y. Vosoughi  A. Moslehi  S. Shaﬁei  E. Edalatkhah  Y. Kasesaz  S. Alhooie  F. Bagiyan  M. Ardestani  A. Kashani  F. Zahedi Nuclear Science Research School, Nuclear Science & Technology Research Institute (N.S.T.R), A.E.O.I, 14155-1339 Tehran, Iran e-mail: sadatkiai@yahoo.com 123 J Fusion Energ (2011) 30:459–461 DOI 10.1007/s10894-011-9402-7