PROTEUS - Proton production of medical radioisotopes for Enhanced Utilization and Supply

用一种通俗易懂的方式描述你的研究。这将是公开的，申请人有责任确保内容适合出版。1到2页之间不超过4000个字符，包括空格和返回。在英国，用于支持国民保健服务的医用放射性同位素供应处于极其糟糕的状况。预计全球和欧洲医用放射性同位素供应链的中断还将使这一情况进一步恶化，因为欧洲各地的许多研究反应堆计划到2030年退役。由于英国缺乏国内研究反应堆来弥补国际生产能力的下降，放射性同位素进一步短缺的风险将增加价格和NHS的压力。由于更换老化反应堆所需的高资本投资，以及规划和建设的十年时间表，迫切需要替代供应链。英国在核聚变研究方面的全球领先地位为利用核聚变技术作为核嬗变的辐射源来解决这一问题提供了宝贵的机会。惯性静电约束聚变（IECF）使用电场而不是磁场来限制氢/氦等离子体混合物，离子的静电加速提供动能，使这种轻元素能够聚变。IECF技术是在20世纪60年代发展起来的，并且很好地理解，几十所大学建立了用于研究目的的示范系统，以产生各种高能粒子。在布里斯托尔大学（UoB），一个更复杂的系统被设计成一个开源的硬件粒子加速器，能够产生中子和质子辐射，用于材料研究和嬗变实验。这个粒子加速器由STFC在CLASP计划下资助，被称为B34，是探索紧凑型IECF设备可行性的理想平台，是实现更便宜和更本地化的医用放射性同位素生产的技术途径。B34系统的设计目的是产生足够高通量的质子，使生产轻型医用同位素成为可能。该系统利用氘（氢的一种同位素）和氦-3（氦的轻同位素）之间的聚变反应产生质子，质子比其他类型的聚变反应产生的中子更容易被屏蔽。这意味着，随着进一步的发展，B34可以成为一种紧凑而廉价的商业设备的基础，用于在医院生产医用同位素——正是在需要同位素的地方。这将对NHS和更广泛的医疗行业产生重大影响。在项目结束时，将充分了解通过IECF质子辐照进行核嬗变的效率，以评估与其他替代方案（如直线加速器或回旋加速器型粒子加速器）相比的经济可行性。

Describe the research in simple terms in a way that could be publicised to a general audience. This will be made publicly available, and Applicants are responsible for ensuring that the content is suitable for publication. No more than, 4000 characters between 1 and 2 Pages including spaces and returns.In the UK, the supply of medical radioisotopes to support the NHS is in a critically poor condition. Anticipated disruptions in the global and European supply chain for medical radioisotopes are furthermore expected to worsen this situation as many research reactors across Europe are scheduled to be retired by 2030. Because the UK lacks a domestic research reactor to natively compensate for the reduced international production capacity, the risk of further radioisotope shortages will increase both prices and pressure on the NHS. Because of the high capital investment necessary to replace ageing reactors as well as decadal timescales for planning and construction, alternative supply chains are urgently needed.The UK's globally leading position in fusion research opens up a valuable opportunity to address this problem by using fusion technology as a radiation source for nuclear transmutation. Inertial electrostatically confined fusion (IECF) uses electric fields rather than magnetic fields to confine a hydrogen/helium plasma mixture, and electrostatic acceleration of ions provides the kinetic energy to enable fusing of such light elements. IECF technology was developed in the 1960s and is well understood, with dozens of universities building demonstration systems for research purposes to produce a variety of high energy particles. At the University of Bristol (UoB), a more sophisticated system was designed as an open source hardware particle accelerator capable of producing both neutron and proton radiation for materials research and transmutation experiments. Funded by the STFC under the CLASP scheme, this particle accelerator, referred to as B34, is the ideal platform to explore the viability of compact IECF devices as a technical pathway towards cheaper and more local medical radioisotope production.The B34 system is designed to produce protons at sufficiently high fluxes to make production of light medical isotopes possible. The system utilises fusion reactions between deuterium (an isotope of hydrogen) and Helium-3 (the light isotope of helium) to produce protons, which are much easier to shield than the neutrons that are produced by other types of fusion reaction. This means that with further development, the B34 could form the basis for a compact and cheap commercial device for producing medical isotopes in hospitals - right where the isotopes are needed. This would be a substantial game-changer for the NHS and for the medical sector more widely. At the end of the project, the efficiency of nuclear transmutation through IECF proton irradiation will be sufficiently understood to assess economic viability in comparison to other alternatives such as linear accelerator or cyclotron-type particle accelerators.