ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Division Spotlight
Education, Training & Workforce Development
The Education, Training & Workforce Development Division provides communication among the academic, industrial, and governmental communities through the exchange of views and information on matters related to education, training and workforce development in nuclear and radiological science, engineering, and technology. Industry leaders, education and training professionals, and interested students work together through Society-sponsored meetings and publications, to enrich their professional development, to educate the general public, and to advance nuclear and radiological science and engineering.
Meeting Spotlight
2021 Student Conference
April 8–10, 2021
Virtual Meeting
Standards Program
The Standards Committee is responsible for the development and maintenance of voluntary consensus standards that address the design, analysis, and operation of components, systems, and facilities related to the application of nuclear science and technology. Find out What’s New, check out the Standards Store, or Get Involved today!
Latest Magazine Issues
Feb 2021
Jul 2020
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
March 2021
Nuclear Technology
February 2021
Fusion Science and Technology
January 2021
Latest News
Researchers report fastest purification of astatine-211 needed for targeted cancer therapy
Astatine-211 recovery from bismuth metal using a chromatography system. Unlike bismuth, astatine-211 forms chemical bonds with ketones.
In a recent study, Texas A&M University researchers have described a new process to purify astatine-211, a promising radioactive isotope for targeted cancer treatment. Unlike other elaborate purification methods, their technique can extract astatine-211 from bismuth in minutes rather than hours, which can greatly reduce the time between production and delivery to the patient.
“Astatine-211 is currently under evaluation as a cancer therapeutic in clinical trials. But the problem is that the supply chain for this element is very limited because only a few places worldwide can make it,” said Jonathan Burns, research scientist in the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station’s Nuclear Engineering and Science Center. “Texas A&M University is one of a handful of places in the world that can make astatine-211, and we have delineated a rapid astatine-211 separation process that increases the usable quantity of this isotope for research and therapeutic purposes.”
The researchers added that this separation method will bring Texas A&M one step closer to being able to provide astatine-211 for distribution through the Department of Energy’s Isotope Program’s National Isotope Development Center as part of the University Isotope Network.
Details on the chemical reaction to purify astatine-211 are in the journal Separation and Purification Technology.
Yuzuri Yasuda, Qincui Gu, Keiji Nagai, Mitsuo Nakai, Takayoshi Norimatsu, Shinsuke Fujioka, Hiroaki Nishimura, Masahiro Nakatsuka
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 49 | Number 4 | May 2006 | Pages 691-694
Technical Paper | Target Fabrication | dx.doi.org/10.13182/FST06-A1187
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
High repetition rate irradiation of a laser on target is necessary for practical operation of an extreme ultraviolet (EUV) light source. A rotating drum with a tin com posite film was fabr icat ed for this purpose. Uniformly tin-dispersed plastic film was prepared from hydroxypropyl cellulose (HPC) and tin source solution of SnCl4/ethanol/H2O. It was transparent in the visible to near infrared region. The film was coated on an aluminum rotating drum from HPC-Sn solution. When this solution was coated on aluminum rotating target drum directly, the drum was corroded. Therefore an alternative method was developed starting with tin(tertbutoxide) instead of SnCl4. The later solution was used for coating on aluminum rotating target drum directly.
