{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/106285"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/106285","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"Experimental approaches for the production of thorium-229","abstract":"In the United States, cancer is the second leading cause of death and a major public health problem worldwide. This has influenced researchers in the field of nuclear medicine to develop new and innovative ways for detecting and treating various forms of cancer. Targeted alpha therapy (TAT) is a promising technique for treating metastatic cancer and involves delivering a radionuclide to the cancerous cells in the body, where it decays by releasing high-energy (5-8 MeV) α-particles with high linear energy transfer (LET) over a short (50-100 µm) range and relatively low toxicity to the rest of the body. Actinium-225 is an ideal radioisotope for TAT due to its short half-life (t1/2=9.92 days) and 3 α-emitting decay daughters. Currently, there is not enough 225Ac available to meet expected demand. Therefore, the goal of this research is to produce more of the parent radioisotope, thorium-229 (t1/2=7932 years.) The two methods of production we chose to investigate are 1) the irradiation of a 226Ra target in the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and 2) the fast neutron irradiation of a 230Th target in a particle accelerator. This thesis outlines several experiments completed at ORNL to test the feasibility and preparation procedures for these two production methods. First, we experimentally evaluated the effective neutron cross section of 229Th to be 8.36 ± 0.37 barns, which is more than 3 times lower than the current reported value of 30.8 ± 1.5 barns. Second, we tested methods for preparing uniformly distributed 230Th targets for fast neutron irradiation at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and determined that depositing approximately 25-30 mg of enriched 230Th(NO3)4 onto a high-purity aluminum substrate and sealing the material with Kapton tape to prevent rehydration is the best way to produce this target.","abstract_html":"In the United States, cancer is the second leading cause of death and a major public health problem worldwide. This has influenced researchers in the field of nuclear medicine to develop new and innovative ways for detecting and treating various forms of cancer. Targeted alpha therapy (TAT) is a promising technique for treating metastatic cancer and involves delivering a radionuclide to the cancerous cells in the body, where it decays by releasing high-energy (5-8 MeV) α-particles with high linear energy transfer (LET) over a short (50-100 µm) range and relatively low toxicity to the rest of the body. Actinium-225 is an ideal radioisotope for TAT due to its short half-life (t1/2=9.92 days) and 3 α-emitting decay daughters. Currently, there is not enough 225Ac available to meet expected demand. Therefore, the goal of this research is to produce more of the parent radioisotope, thorium-229 (t1/2=7932 years.) The two methods of production we chose to investigate are 1) the irradiation of a 226Ra target in the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and 2) the fast neutron irradiation of a 230Th target in a particle accelerator. This thesis outlines several experiments completed at ORNL to test the feasibility and preparation procedures for these two production methods. First, we experimentally evaluated the effective neutron cross section of 229Th to be 8.36 ± 0.37 barns, which is more than 3 times lower than the current reported value of 30.8 ± 1.5 barns. Second, we tested methods for preparing uniformly distributed 230Th targets for fast neutron irradiation at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and determined that depositing approximately 25-30 mg of enriched 230Th(NO3)4 onto a high-purity aluminum substrate and sealing the material with Kapton tape to prevent rehydration is the best way to produce this target.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Molnar, Mikayla Marie"],"institution":"University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"M.S.","degree_level":"Thesis","degree_discipline":"Nuclear, Plasma, Radiolgc Engr","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Allain, Jean P"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2020,"date_issued":"2020-03-02T22:03:26Z","date_published":"2020-03-02T22:03:26Z","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:24:45Z","subjects":["thorium-229, medical radioisotopes, nuclear medicine, actinium-225, cross-sections, thorium-230"],"languages":["en"],"rights":["Copyright 2019 Mikayla Molnar"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/2142/106285","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Allain, Jean P"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Molnar, Mikayla Marie"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2020-03-02T22:03:26Z","2019-12-12","2019-12"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["text"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Nuclear, Plasma, Radiolgc Engr"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["M.S."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["thorium-229, medical radioisotopes, nuclear medicine, actinium-225, cross-sections, thorium-230"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["en"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Copyright 2019 Mikayla Molnar"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/2142/106285"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["In the United States, cancer is the second leading cause of death and a major public health problem worldwide. This has influenced researchers in the field of nuclear medicine to develop new and innovative ways for detecting and treating various forms of cancer. Targeted alpha therapy (TAT) is a promising technique for treating metastatic cancer and involves delivering a radionuclide to the cancerous cells in the body, where it decays by releasing high-energy (5-8 MeV) α-particles with high linear energy transfer (LET) over a short (50-100 µm) range and relatively low toxicity to the rest of the body. Actinium-225 is an ideal radioisotope for TAT due to its short half-life (t1/2=9.92 days) and 3 α-emitting decay daughters. Currently, there is not enough 225Ac available to meet expected demand. Therefore, the goal of this research is to produce more of the parent radioisotope, thorium-229 (t1/2=7932 years.) The two methods of production we chose to investigate are 1) the irradiation of a 226Ra target in the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and 2) the fast neutron irradiation of a 230Th target in a particle accelerator. This thesis outlines several experiments completed at ORNL to test the feasibility and preparation procedures for these two production methods. First, we experimentally evaluated the effective neutron cross section of 229Th to be 8.36 ± 0.37 barns, which is more than 3 times lower than the current reported value of 30.8 ± 1.5 barns. Second, we tested methods for preparing uniformly distributed 230Th targets for fast neutron irradiation at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and determined that depositing approximately 25-30 mg of enriched 230Th(NO3)4 onto a high-purity aluminum substrate and sealing the material with Kapton tape to prevent rehydration is the best way to produce this target.","Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2020-02-28 without embargo terms","The student, Mikayla Molnar, accepted the attached license on 2019-12-11 at 14:09.","The student, Mikayla Molnar, submitted this Thesis for approval on 2019-12-11 at 14:34.","This Thesis was approved for publication on 2019-12-12 at 08:32.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #14793 on 2020-02-28 at 17:16:47","Made available in DSpace on 2020-03-02T22:03:26Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 MOLNAR-THESIS-2019.pdf: 1196724 bytes, checksum: 3f76b561ad6a8ed01b1155cff26c07ff (MD5) LICENSE.txt: 4211 bytes, checksum: fa2e127450a70b14522781e42dee508b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2019-12-12"]},{"key":"dc:format","label":"Dc Format","values":["application/pdf"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Experimental approaches for the production of thorium-229"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Allain, Jean P"],"dc:creator":["Molnar, Mikayla Marie"],"dc:date":["2020-03-02T22:03:26Z","2019-12-12","2019-12"],"dc:description":["In the United States, cancer is the second leading cause of death and a major public health problem worldwide. This has influenced researchers in the field of nuclear medicine to develop new and innovative ways for detecting and treating various forms of cancer. Targeted alpha therapy (TAT) is a promising technique for treating metastatic cancer and involves delivering a radionuclide to the cancerous cells in the body, where it decays by releasing high-energy (5-8 MeV) α-particles with high linear energy transfer (LET) over a short (50-100 µm) range and relatively low toxicity to the rest of the body. Actinium-225 is an ideal radioisotope for TAT due to its short half-life (t1/2=9.92 days) and 3 α-emitting decay daughters. Currently, there is not enough 225Ac available to meet expected demand. Therefore, the goal of this research is to produce more of the parent radioisotope, thorium-229 (t1/2=7932 years.) The two methods of production we chose to investigate are 1) the irradiation of a 226Ra target in the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and 2) the fast neutron irradiation of a 230Th target in a particle accelerator. This thesis outlines several experiments completed at ORNL to test the feasibility and preparation procedures for these two production methods. First, we experimentally evaluated the effective neutron cross section of 229Th to be 8.36 ± 0.37 barns, which is more than 3 times lower than the current reported value of 30.8 ± 1.5 barns. Second, we tested methods for preparing uniformly distributed 230Th targets for fast neutron irradiation at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and determined that depositing approximately 25-30 mg of enriched 230Th(NO3)4 onto a high-purity aluminum substrate and sealing the material with Kapton tape to prevent rehydration is the best way to produce this target.","Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2020-02-28 without embargo terms","The student, Mikayla Molnar, accepted the attached license on 2019-12-11 at 14:09.","The student, Mikayla Molnar, submitted this Thesis for approval on 2019-12-11 at 14:34.","This Thesis was approved for publication on 2019-12-12 at 08:32.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #14793 on 2020-02-28 at 17:16:47","Made available in DSpace on 2020-03-02T22:03:26Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 MOLNAR-THESIS-2019.pdf: 1196724 bytes, checksum: 3f76b561ad6a8ed01b1155cff26c07ff (MD5) LICENSE.txt: 4211 bytes, checksum: fa2e127450a70b14522781e42dee508b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2019-12-12"],"dc:format":["application/pdf"],"dc:identifier":["http://hdl.handle.net/2142/106285"],"dc:language":["en"],"dc:rights":["Copyright 2019 Mikayla Molnar"],"dc:subject":["thorium-229, medical radioisotopes, nuclear medicine, actinium-225, cross-sections, thorium-230"],"dc:title":["Experimental approaches for the production of thorium-229"],"dc:type":["text"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Nuclear, Plasma, Radiolgc Engr"],"thesis:degree_level":["Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["M.S."],"thesis:institution_name":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:24:45Z"}