Atomic Energy Society of Japan

Scandium-47 (T_1/2 = 3.3492 d) decays with emission of beta particles, which can be used for therapy. The radionuclide can be produced via charged-particle-induced reactions on neighbor elements, such as calcium, scandium, and titanium. We focus on production of ⁴⁷Sc via alpha-particle-induced reactions on calcium. Because only one experimental study was found in a literature survey, we conducted an experiment to determine cross sections of alpha-particle-induced reactions on natural calcium. The experiment was performed at the RIKEN AVF cyclotron using the stacked-foil activation technique and high-resolution gamma-ray spectrometry. We report production cross sections for ⁴⁷Sc and for co-produced radionuclides via the corresponding reactions.