Medical radionuclide production in nuclear reactors – Sensitivity analysis to nuclear data

The need for nuclear data for radioisotope production is of great importance for research and development in a wide range of applications of nuclear technology. This study presents a nuclear data sensitivity study for different radioisotopes that are used (or will be potentially used) in nuclear medicine and that are produced in nuclear reactors through neutron activation. The objective of the analysis is to understand how production is affected by targeting a new reaction cross-section region (different from the averaged cross-section that is currently being used) and determine whether the production could be maximised. The criterion determining whether a production route could be maximised is the change that the nuclide number undergoes over time when using the different cross-section values in the reaction rate equations.