CERN is the world's leading laboratory for particle physics, operating a complex chain of particle accelerators to reach up to 7 TeV energy, alternating Long Shutdowns such as LS3 in 2026-2027 with major accelerators upgrades and accelerator operation. The next run period such as run 3 in 2028-2034 where 50% 1.4GeV PS Booster protons are used for fixed targets experiments at ISOLDE and MEDICIS.
A large variety of radionuclides is produced at MEDICIS either from external sources or from dedicated irradiated targets, the so-called ISOL or mass-separation process, which results in mass-separated pure and intense radioactive ion beams collected in salt or metallic layers on small foils. They are used for nuclear and particle physics, solid state physics and biophysics. To make medical radionuclides available much more frequently, the new MEDICIS facility uses a second target station downstream of the ISOLDE target. After irradiation, the radionuclides are extracted and mass separated off-line, providing batches of high purity radionuclides. MEDICIS, commissioned in 2018, mass-separate also radionuclides produced at high flux reactors (e. g. RHF or BR2) or cyclotrons (e. g. ARRONAX).
The ISOL mass separation process is intrinsically very universal, thus an expansion towards other requested radionuclides is conditioned by an individual optimisation of dedicated targets and ion sources to increase the activity levels and the development of the downstream radiochemical separation processes to be performed at other PRISMAP partners.
MEDICIS will provide notably high purity grade imaging and therapeutic radionuclides such as High Molar activity 47Sc, Sm-153, Tb-155, Tm-165 /Er-165, Er-169,Yb-175, Ra223, Ra224/Pb212, Ra225/Ac225, some at each PRISMAP+ call for projects and others in 2028.
