Cross section measurements for the production of 49,51 Cr and 47 Sc from proton irradiation of natural vanadium up to 24 MeV.

Scandium-47 is a promising radionuclide for targeted radiotherapy and is also an elementally matched therapeutic partner to 43 Sc and 44 Sc, which are suitable for Positron Emission Tomography. The predominantly reported routes for the production of 47 Sc employ expensive enriched titanium or calcium targets to achieve high radionuclidic purity. This study reports measurements of the excitation function of the nat V(p,x) 47 Sc reaction at proton energies of 18-24 MeV to optimize bombardment parameters for the production of 47 Sc using this promising approach. The cross-sections reported here demonstrate that irradiation of vanadium targets can produce >99% radionuclidically pure 47 Sc with a proton energy of 24 MeV, albeit at modest yields.