ACCELERATOR PRODUCTION OF RADIONUCLIDES

While many radioactive isotopes in use today are found in nature, many more are artificially produced by irradiating target materials with nuclear particles. Two different technologies can provide the energetic particles needed: nuclear reactors, which produce a flux of neutrons, and particle accelerators, which produce a flux of charged particles. This chapter will deal with the important aspects of the production of radionuclides with accelerators, along with some details on their applications, commercially-available accelerator systems used for this purpose, and the size of the equipment business.