Production of 16O(3He,p)18F and 20Ne(d,α)18F Short-Lived Radioisotopes with a Plasma Focus

Mather type plasma focus with the bank energy, 150 kJ (30 kV, 333 μF), was studied for the induced activity of 18F, a short-lived radioisotopes which is a β+ emitter with 511 keV of gamma rays and has a half-life t 1/2 = 110 min, through 16O(3He,p)18F and 20Ne(d,α)18F nuclear reactions. The results of simulated numerical computations show that activities of 3.786 × 1010 Bq and 6.632 × 1010 Bq were found for 16O(3He,p)18F and 20Ne(d,α)18F reactions, respectively. The calculations were carried out for the same initial and final energies conditions, when Plasma focus works with 150 kJ at the repetition rate of 1 Hz and for 120 min of running time. According to the simulated results, the activity of 20Ne(d,α)18F had an increase because the projectile ion mass “deuteron” was lighter than the 3He which resulted in the higher induced voltage and the number of projectile ions.