15O, 11C and 13N production in water with a 1 GeV electron linac

We measured the yield of 15O, 11C and 13N by photonuclear reactions in water exposed to bremsstrahlung gammas produced with a 1 GeV linac. The activity at saturation reached the values, respectively, of 30, 1.17 and 4.4 × 10−1 mCi μA−1cm−3 of water. We describe the measurements and possible implications and we compare the experimental results with calculations performed with the Monte Carlo code GEANT.