Production and separation of [sup.64]Cu and [sup.67]Cu using 14 MeV neutrons

[sup.64]Cu and [sup.67]Cu, promising candidates for radioimmunotherapy, were produced by irradiating enriched [sup.64]ZnO and natural ZnO with ~ 14 MeV neutrons via the [sup.64]Zn(n, p)[sup.64]Cu and [sup.67]Zn(n, p)[sup.67]Cu reactions. No-carrier-added [sup.64,67]Cu were separated giving a yield of >90%, a low radionuclide impurity ratio of [sup.65]Zn ([sup.65]Zn/[sup.64]Cu < 0.01%) and Zn decontamination factor of over 9.7 x [10.sup.5]. The labelling efficiency with [sup.64,67]Cu for TETA was 92-97%. The current study demonstrated that the fundamental separation and the purification procedure for [sup.64, 67]Cu from [sup.nat, 64]ZnO were established with high separation efficiency and successful labelling, together with high recovery of Zn samples. Keywords [sup.64]Cu * [sup.67]Cu * Radioisotope production * 14 MeV neutrons Nuclear medicine