IAEA RADIATION TECHNOLOGY SERIES No. 5
IAEA Vienna, Austria 2013, p.220
Radiotracers have been widely used throughout industry to optimize
processes, solve problems, improve product quality, save energy and reduce
pollution. Their technical, economic and environmental benefits have been
recognized by both the industrial and the environmental sectors. The most
important radiotracer techniques have been transferred to many developing
Member States through IAEA Technical Cooperation projects.
However, in spite of their manifest benefits, radiotracer techniques continue
to be underutilized, not only by developing countries but also by more
industrialized nations. There are a number of factors that restrict the usage of the
radioisotope techniques, but chief among them is the timely availability of
suitable radiotracers. Ensuring timely availability of suitable radionuclides is a
main hurdle to the use of radiotracer techniques in industry. For developing
countries that do not possess radioisotope production facilities, the long time
required for import of radionuclides not only completely rules out the use of short
half-life nuclides, but also makes it impossible for the radioisotope applications
teams to respond to problems of an urgent nature. Many possible radiotracer
investigations are not being carried out in developing countries because of this
problem.
Even in industrialized countries, radionuclide supply is often a problem, as
many of the former suppliers of industrial radionuclides have switched their
production facilities to serve the more lucrative radiopharmaceuticals market.
Obtaining continuity of supply of radionuclides with which to carry out extended
studies in difficult-to-access locations, such as offshore oil platforms, is also a
significant challenge.
Making use of tracers from radionuclide generators can alleviate the
difficulties associated with radioisotope supply. Two commercially available
medical radionuclide generators, 99Mo/99mTc and 113Sn/113mIn, have been used for
this purpose, but their use has been restricted because their half-lives are
relatively short and only a limited number of radiotracers derived from them have
been proven under industrial conditions.
Recognizing the potential usefulness of several radionuclide generators,
including 68Ge/68Ga and 137Cs/137mBa and of radiotracers derived from them, the
Agency organized a Coordinated Research Project (CRP) on the Evaluation and
Validation of Radionuclide Generator-based Radiotracers for Industrial
Applications. The objectives of the CRP, which was implemented over the period
2007–2011, was to coordinate the development of industrial radionuclide
generators and to validate generator based radiotracers for use in harsh industrial
conditions. It was anticipated that an important outcome would be the production
of radionuclide generators designed specifically for industrial purposes. Their cost would be considerably lower than those of medical generators since the high
costs of the facilities required to produce generators suitable for in vivo use can
be avoided.
