RHF

The Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) is the leading European research centre in neutron science and technology. ILL operates the high-flux reactor RHF as neutron source, supplying neutrons to a suite of over 40 high-performance instruments for neutron scattering and other neutron applications. As a service institute ILL hosts every year about 1800 researchers from over 40 countries that visit the ILL to perform experiments in fundamental and applied science. The RHF also has in-pile positions, e.g. the V4 irradiation tube, with up to 1.5·10¹⁵ n.cm^-2s^-1 thermal neutron flux, the highest available in Europe, ideal for production of radionuclides with high specific activity.

ILL performs neutron irradiations to transmute part of the sample to the intended radionuclides. The active sample is then shipped in a shielded cask to the collaborating partner, an experienced radiochemistry laboratory, to perform a radiochemical separation/purification before final use. The ILL reactor belongs to the global network of high-flux reactors that are irradiating targets to produce e.g. commercially available Lu-177 and Tb-161.

In collaborations with external partners (PSI, DTU, NCBJ, CERN, etc.), ILL pioneered production of non-conventional radionuclides for scientific and medical applications that are not commercially available, e.g. Sc-47, Pd-103, Ag-111, Cs-131, n.c.a. Er-169, Yb-175, etc. These collaborations enabled first radiochemical or preclinical experiments demonstrating the advantages of the respective radionuclides.

Within PRISMAP+, ILL will perform irradiations of targets with subsequent radiochemical or mass separation at other PRISMAP facilities.