CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

Priority to Korean patent application number 10-2019-0089190 filed on Jul. 23, 2019 the entire disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein, is claimed.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present disclosure relates to a method of producing actinium by using liquefied radium and, more specifically, to a production method capable of producing actinium by performing a nuclear reaction of liquefied radium.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Ac-225 is produced while two neutrons are escaping from the radium-226 target material when accelerating and colliding a proton with a radium-226 target material by a nuclear reaction of 226Ra(p, 2n)225Ac to produce actinium-225, i.e., a radioactive medicine for treatment. A Ra-226 material used at this time generally includes a powder-type target among solid targets. A Ra-226 powder to which the proton has been irradiated passes through a series of separation and refinement processes in order to separate Ac-225 which is included in the powder and has been produced by performing a nuclear reaction. To this end, a method of producing Ac-225 may comprise melting Ra-226 into a liquefied form, passing a liquefied Ra-226 through separation and refinement processes, and performing a process of preparing the powder type Ra-226 to reuse a powder type Ra-226 for producing Ac-225 again. A method of producing Ac-225 by using such a powder type Ra-226 is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,680,993.

However, such a conventional technique makes a quantitative loss of Ra-226 according as Ra-226 is changed into a powder form and a liquefied form in a series of processes for producing Ac-225. Due to problems that Ra-226 has a long half-life of about 1,600 years at present, and releases radon, i.e., an inert gas in the decay process, there have been difficulties in disposal and storage of Ra-226, and, for this reason, additional production has been suspended. Therefore, it is desirable that a loss of Ra-226 is minimized in the process of producing Ac-225 by using Ra-226 which has not been left much in the world.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The purpose of the present disclosure is to provide a method of producing actinium using liquefied radium, the method for minimizing loss of Ra-226 which may be generated in the process of producing Ac-225 by performing a nuclear reaction using conventional Ra-226.

To achieve the purpose, the present disclosure may provide a method of producing actinium by using liquefied radium, the method comprising a step of moving the liquefied radium to load the liquefied radium into a reaction space inside a chamber, a step of producing actinium through a nuclear reaction process by irradiating a particle beam to the liquefied radium of the reaction space inside the chamber, and an unloading step of moving a product comprising the liquefied radium and actinium to the outside of the chamber.

Meanwhile, the method of producing actinium using liquefied radium may further comprise a separation step of separating actinium from the product.

Further, the method of producing actinium using liquefied radium may comprise a reloading step of moving remaining liquefied radium obtained by separating actinium from the product to the reaction space of the chamber.

Moreover, the method of producing actinium using liquefied radium may further comprise a radon discharge step of discharging radon included in the product while performing the loading step or the unloading step.

Further, the radon discharge step enables radon to be discarded by condensing radon.

Additionally, the radon discharge step enables radon to be discharged after diluting radon with external air.

Meanwhile, the loading step enables a preset amount of radium to be moved to the reaction space.

Moreover, the loading step enables the preset amount of radium to be moved to the reaction space by using a syringe pump.

On the other hand, the unloading step enables the product to be unloaded by flowing in an inert gas into the reaction space of the chamber.

Meanwhile, the radium can be liquefied by using an organic solution.

Moreover, the organic solution may be NO3or Cl2.

Moreover, the method of producing actinium using liquefied radium may further comprise a step of refining separated actinium, the step which is performed after the step of separating actinium.

A method of producing actinium by using liquefied radium according to the present disclosure can minimize loss of Ra-226 according to the state change of Ac-225 by producing Ac-225 using Ra-226 of a liquefied state, moving the produced Ac-225 in a liquefied state after Ac-225 is produced, and separating Ac-225 and reusing Ra-226 thereby enabling a nuclear reaction process of Ac-225 to be performed.

Further, a method of producing actinium by using liquefied radium according to the present disclosure has an effect of enabling safety to be improved by including a radon collection unit which is capable of discharging and isolating radon produced from Ra-226, thereby preventing radiation exposure due to radon.

