Evaluation of charged particle induced reaction cross section data for production of the important therapeutic radionuclide 186Re

Re-186 is an important radionuclide having a half-life of 3.72 d that is suitable for radioimmunotherapy. Its production in no-carrier-added form is done via charged particle induced reactions and the data are available in EXFOR library. We evaluated two charged particle induced reactions, namely W-186(p, n) Re-186 and W-186(d, 2n) Re-186. In the first case, analysis was done up to about 70 MeV but in the latter only up to about 50 MeV. A statistical procedure supported by nuclear model calculations using the codes STAPRE, EMPIRE and TALYS was used to validate and fit the data. The recommended sets of data derived together with 95% confidence limits are reported. The application of those data, particularly in the calculation of integral yields is discussed. The W-186(p, n) Re-186 reaction on highly enriched W-186 is presently the method of choice for production of no-carrier-added Re-186 and, taking into account the radionuclidic purity, the maximum recommended proton energy is 18 MeV. The formation of the very long-lived isomer, Re-186m, is briefly discussed. The W-186(d, 2n) Re-186 reaction could also be interesting if a high-intensity accelerator would be available