Production of 123I Using a Low-Energy Accelerator

We demonstrate the feasibility of using a 6-MeV Van de Graaff accelerator to produce very pure 123I via the 123Te(p, n) 123I reaction. Specifically, contamination from 124I can be practically eliminated by using a target enriched in 123Te, and by taking advantage of the significantly lower production threshold for the 123Te(p, n) reaction as compared to 124Te(p, n). 123I was produced at 5.5 and 6.0 MeV proton bombarding energy using both a natural Te and an enriched 123Te target. The activities produced show that mCi amounts of 123I can be produced routinely with less than one percent contamination from 124I.