On the study of Cu-64 production from 18 MeV proton-induced secondary fast neutron bombardment

In this work, we propose a novel method for Cu-64 production using secondary neutrons emitted from 18-MeV proton bombardment of primary beryllium (Be) and beryllium–titanium (Be–Ti) targets via 64Zn(n,p)64Cu nuclear reaction. The primary target thicknesses of Be and Be–Ti were varied to obtain optimum secondary neutron flux following 18-MeV proton bombardment. The secondary neutron fluxes were calculated using the PHITS 3.16 codes while the resulting data were analyzed and compared from the varied Be and Be–Ti target thicknesses. The theoretical calculations indicated that the maximum neutron flux could be obtained when 1.0 mm Be was combined with 0.3 mm Ti targets, with the neutron flux of 1.74 × 1012 n/cm2s. The calculated radioactivity yield of Cu-64 was maximum when the primary target was pure 1.3 mm thick Be. The integrated Cu-64 radioactivity yield could reach 79.7 MBq/µAh at all neutron energy spectrums with such a simulation setup. The most significant predicted radioactive impurities were Zn-65 and Co-61 during the Cu-64 production.