Optimization of the production of 152,155,161Tb with natDy(p, x) and 159Tb(p, x) nuclear reactions

Some of the terbium radioisotopes have recently been proposed in nuclear medicine due to their characteristics: 149Tb is an alpha and beta+ emitter making it a candidate for radiotherapy and PET, 152Tb is a multiple beta+ emitter, therefore a candidate for PET, 155Tb is promising for SPECT due to its gamma emissions, and 161Tb emits both beta- particles and Auger electrons that can be used for Auger therapy. We studied the possibility to produce high specific activity 155Tb after the decay of 155Dy produced via natDy(p, x) and 159Tb(p, x) reactions. Moreover, the possibility to produce 152Tb and 161Tb with natDy(p, x) reactions was investigated. The targets were irradiated at the GIP ARRONAX cyclotron (Saint-Herblain, FR) using the stacked foils technique with a proton beam of energy between 35 and 65 MeV. The measurement of the activity was done at LASA Laboratory (Segrate, IT) using high-resolution gamma spectrometry. We present the measured cross-sections in comparison with previous experimental results present in literature and theoretical simulations. Furthermore, thick target yield and radionuclide purity were computed to determine the feasibility of the production process.