Short-Lived PET Radioisotope Production in a Small Plasma Focus Device

High-energy deuterons from a small plasma focus device (1.7 kJ) have been used for short-lived radioisotope production. For the12C(d, n)13N reaction, 40 kBq of13N was obtained by bombarding a graphite target at a 1-Hz shot repetition rate for 30 s. This could be increased to 10 MBq at a 16-Hz repetition rate. Plasma focus devices operating with higher bank energies should produce substantially higher isotope yields.