Reuse of decayed tellurium dioxide target for production of iodine-131

Iodine-131 was generated by irradiation of natural tellurium dioxide in a nuclear reactor. After irradiation the tellurium dioxide was transferred to hot cell and heated in a quartz furnace at ~700 °C. The Iodine-131 was distilled and collected in carbonate/bicarbonate buffer and used for thyroid cancer patients. The tellurium dioxide used was >99 % pure. During nuclear reaction nanogram tellurium was consumed to produce ¹³¹I, although significant loss of target material may occur in heating process. In dry distillation technique no chemical was added to irradiated target material. After ¹³¹I separation tellurium dioxide was decayed for 8 years in radioactive waste management facility. The decayed TeO₂ was recovered, melted and crushed for desired mesh size. The TeO₂ was sealed in Al capsule for re-irradiation purposes. The separation of ¹³¹I was carried out via dry distillation. The purity and yield of ¹³¹I separated from both of the irradiated new and irradiated re-used tellurium dioxide targets were comparable.