212Pb/212Bi Generator for nuclear medicine

A scheme for producing the α-emitters 212Pb and 212Bi, to be used in a promising method of diagnostics and therapy in oncology – radioimmunotherapy, is proposed. The technology is based on two generators operating in tandem: 228Th/212Pb and 212Pb/212Bi. The first one is based on separation from an initial solution containing thorium isotopes and gaseous 220Rn, which secures the purity of the desired products 212Pb and 212Bi. For a 228Th/212Pb model generator, the efficiency of 220Rn extraction from solution was ~60%. After conditioning, the 212Pb solution from the 228Th/212Pb generator was used to charge a column, which functioned as a 212Pb/212Bi generator, with a cation exchanger.