2.6.2. Specific Activity

Specific activity (SA) is defined as radioactivity per unit mass of the product [68]. Several factors that could affect the specific activity of the final product include crosssections, target impurities, secondary nuclear reactions, target burn-up, and post-irradiation processing periods.

The chosen production route may be optimized to limit the production of stable copper isotopes. However, the contamination with stable copper (63,65Cu) coming from the materials and chemicals involved in the production and separation is difficult to control. Special care has to be taken employing metal free chemicals and tools. It is therefore fundamental to determine the quantity of stable copper in the final product through inductively coupled plasma with optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) or mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) detection techniques.
