Speaker
Description
The Thailand Institute of Nuclear Technology (TINT) has established a cyclotron facility in Nakhon Nayok to provide a domestic supply of medical radioisotopes and accelerated proton and deuteron beams for materials science research. The MCC-30/15 cyclotron, supplied by JSC NIIEFA, accelerates H− ions to 15–30 MeV at up to 200 µA and D− ions to 9-15 MeV at up to 50 µA, and the beam is extracted by charge exchange on carbon stripping foils. Installation of the cyclotron and its major subsystems has been completed, and the external injection system has been tested with H− currents of up to 2 mA. The cyclotron serves three beamlines: two for radioisotope production and one for research and development.
The primary objective of the facility is the domestic production of medical radioisotopes. The production area, which has been approved by the Thai Food and Drug Administration, comprises solid target stations for 201Tl, 67Ga, 64Cu and 89Zr, a liquid target for 18F, hot cells and quality-control equipment. Production will begin with 18F and 68Ga radiopharmaceuticals and then extend to 64Cu and 89Zr, while 44Sc, 155Tb, 61Cu/67Cu and 123I are planned from 2028.
The secondary objective is research and development, served by the third beamline. The beamline terminates at a five-port switching magnet that will feed two stations for particle-induced X-ray and gamma-ray emission (PIXE/PIGE) analysis: an in-air station from 2027 and an in-vacuum station, designed and manufactured in-house, from 2030. Because PIXE and PIGE require 2-5 MeV protons, an energy-adjustable section consisting of an aluminum degrader, a two-stage copper collimator, a Rutherford backscattering energy measurement system and a Faraday cup has been designed. In addition, the photon and neutron dose equivalents arising from radiopharmaceutical production and from beam energy degradation in the research beamline have been investigated as part of the radiation safety assessment of the facility. This contribution presents an overview of the radiopharmaceutical production beamlines, the design of the research beamline and the results of the radiation safety assessment.