Copper-64 is a radioisotope of medical interest that could be used for positron emission tomography imaging and targeted radiotherapy of cancer. In this work,we investigated the possibility of producing the^(64)Cu isotope through a^(65)Cu(γ,n) reaction using high-intensity γ-beams produced at the Extreme Light InfrastructureNuclear Physics facility(ELI-NP). The specific activity for^(64)Cu was obtained as a function of target geometry, irradiation time, and electron beam energy, which translates into γ-beam energy. Optimized conditions for the generation of^(64)Cu isotopes at the ELI-NP were discussed. We estimated that an achievable saturation specific activity is of the order of 1–2 m Ci/g for thin targets(radius 1–2 mm,thickness 1 cm) and for a γ-beam flux of 10^(11) s ~1. Based on these results, the ELI-NP could provide great potential for the production of some innovative radioisotopes of medical interest in sufficient quantities suitable for nuclear medicine research.
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