Positron-Emitting Radionuclide Yield in Deuterium Beam-Injected ³He Plasma

Production of ¹⁸F, a positron emitter, with fast protons from D-³He fusion reactions and oxygen (¹⁸O) impurities in a large tokamak is studied numerically. A high-energy deuterium beam is used for proton production enhancement. The yield of ¹⁸F is found to be optimized in a somewhat dirty plasma with an effective ionic charge number of Z_eff ∼ 5 and doubled by the inclusion of the possible resonance in the ¹⁸O(p,n)¹⁸F reaction. The yield in the deuterium beam-injected ³He plasma is 1000 times larger than by standard methods using a cyclotron. A comparison is also made with the yield in an advanced plasma regime.