Managing a high intensity high energy cyclotron for medical applications

by Dr Ferid Haddad (GIP Arronax, 1 rue Aronnax, 44817 Saint-Herblain, France)

Thursday 21 Jan 2016, 15:00 → 16:00 Europe/Rome

C. Villi meeting room (INFN-LNL)

Arronax (Accelerator for Research in Radiochemistry and Oncology in Nantes Atlantique) is a facility that aims at promoting research in nuclear medicine and related topics such as physics, radiolysis and radiobiology. Arronax hosts a multi-particle (p,d, alpha) cyclotron  able to deliver beam at high intensity (up to 375 µA for protons) and at high energy (up to70 MeV for protons). The facility has been commissioned at the end of 2010 and is operated since 2011 to produce innovative radionuclide for PET imaging or for therapy. We now have a recoil of several years of operation and maintenance. The goal of this seminar is to make a status report of our facility presenting the different radionuclide produced in routine operation as well as the experiments performs on irradiation of inert or living materials. We will also present some aspects associated to radiation safety during high intensity operation (radioactive species produced in cooling water, atmospheric outgasing, neutrons flux in the facility during high intensity operation), target breaking as well as during maintenance (activation of accelerator parts).