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Reimagining nuclear materials for the future of medicine
Nuclear medicine has come a long way since Henri Becquerel first observed the penetrating energy of radioactive materials in 1896. Today, technetium-99m alone is used in more than 40 million diagnostic procedures every year—from cardiovascular imaging and bone scans to cancer detection—making it the undisputed workhorse of nuclear medicine. That single statistic tells you something important: An enormous portion of modern diagnostic medicine rests on a surprisingly narrow foundation, one built around a small number of aging research reactors that were never originally designed for continuous isotope production.
Giuseppe Palmiotti, J. Blair Briggs, Teruhiko Kugo, Edward (Fitz) Trumble, Albert C. (Skip) Kahler, Dale Lancaster
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 178 | Number 3 | November 2014 | Pages 295-310
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE14-33
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The International Reactor Physics Experiment Evaluation Project (IRPhEP) and the International Criticality Safety Benchmark Evaluation Project (ICSBEP) provide evaluated integral benchmark data that may be used for validation of reactor physics/nuclear criticality safety analytical methods and data, nuclear data testing, advanced modeling and simulation, and safety analysis licensing activities. The handbooks produced by these programs are used in over 30 countries. Five example applications are presented in this paper: (a) use of IRPhEP data in uncertainty analyses and cross-section adjustment, (b) uncertainty evaluation methods for reactor core design at Japan Atomic Energy Agency using reactor physics experimental data, (c) application of benchmarking data to a broad range of criticality safety problems, (d) cross-section data testing with ICSBEP benchmarks, and (e) use of the International Handbook of Evaluated Reactor Physics Benchmark Experiments to support the power industry.