Cross-sections of the reaction 232Th(p,3n)230Pa for production of 230U for targeted alpha therapy.

(230)U/(226)Th is a promising novel alpha-emitter system for application in targeted alpha therapy of cancer. The therapeutic nuclides can be produced by proton irradiation of natural (232)Th according to the reaction (232)Th(p,3n)(230)Pa, followed by subsequent beta decay of (230)Pa to (230)U. In this study, the experimental excitation function for the (232)Th(p,3n)(230)Pa reaction up to 34 MeV proton energy has been measured using the stacked-foil technique. The proton energies in the various foils were calculated with the SRIM 2003 code and gamma-ray spectrometry was used to measure the activities of the various radioisotopes produced. The measured cross-sections are in good agreement with selected literature values and with model calculations using the EMPIRE II code. The reaction (232)Th(p,3n)(230)Pa allows the production of carrier-free (230)U in clinically relevant levels.