Development of radiometal automated laboratory workbench

Introduction Radiometals are finding more and more applications in molecular imaging and targeted therapy. For PET imaging, all the novel radiometals are directly or indirectly produced on cyclotrons. Key step in their production is achieving proper radionuclidic, radiochemical and chemical purity, as well as high specific activity. Automation of the process enhances reproducibility, shortens necessary operations and decreases radiation burden. We have, therefore, developed universal radio-metal automated laboratory workbench (RALW) that is focused on separation processes from solid and liquid (solution) targets via solid phase extraction (SPE). Material and Methods RALW is versatile platform for separation, formulation and simple labeling processes. The following FIG. 1 displays its basic scheme. RALW´s main parts are: two reactors, two selec-tors, peristaltic pump, 3/2 way valves, and separation column. Prime reactor R1 is designed to carry out several functions. It can transport solid target material from shielding container to process position, or handle liquid target filling. In both cases, the reactor is leakagefree up to 5 bars. There are 4 positions available to bring solvents to the reactor 1 or applying on a SPE column according to the separation sequence with use of peristaltic pump. Smart software allows for collecting defined fractions leaving the column, e.g. enriched target matrix and the desired radionuclide, by monitoring activity profile and controlling the splitting valves. The system also minimizes losses during transport of the solvents/fractions to the reactor R2 and the software also controls final volume settings (activity concentration) of the product. Up to three positions are available for bringing solvents/solutions to the reactor R2 for formulation or simple labeling steps like chelation. The system’s hardware is driven by a PLC and I/O cards. The PLC is placed outside the module to avoid radiation damage. The module, PLC and host PC communicate via an Ethernet cable. This solution significantly reduced number of cables connecting the module with other component in the control chain. The PLC is controlled via host PC equipped with userfriendly interface. Results and Conclusion The presented RPLW system is rather versatile tool for separation of metal radionuclides and simple postprocessing (formulation/labelling) of the product in stable environment and easy control mechanisms. The RPLW operating prototype is shown on the FIG. 2

Precise energy of the 9.4 keV gamma transition observed in the 83Rb decay

The energy of the 9.4 keV γ-transition observed in the 83Rb decay was established to be 9405.8(3) eV. This energy value was obtained from photon spectrometry measurements of the differences in the energies of closely spaced lines. The result allows one to determine more precisely the energy of conversion electrons of the 9.4 keV transition, which represent a unique tool for energy calibration of the tritium beta spectrum and systematic measurements in the KATRIN neutrino mass determination experiment

The Nature of Incomes of Small Entrepreneurship and the Theoretical Bases of Their Taxation

The article is aimed at studying the essence and nature of incomes of natural persons of entrepreneurship in the structure of factor incomes. The main identification attributes and features of such incomes are analyzed. The views of the leading scholars on the theoretical bases of taxation of incomes from small business are characterized alongside with influence of taxation on performance of the basic public functions of entrepreneurship on the part of natural persons. It is proved that connection of entrepreneurial incomes with peculiarities of their taxation is manifested in two aspects. First, in terms of distribution of the tax burden between different types of factorial incomes, secondly, distribution of the tax burden between economic entities which have chosen different models of economic behavior. Prospect for further researches in this direction is evaluation of influence of taxation on the economic activity of entrepreneurs, structure of production, and distribution of incomes of taxes

Spatially uniform calibration of a liquid xenon detector at low energies using 83m-Kr

A difficult task with many particle detectors focusing on interactions below ~100 keV is to perform a calibration in the appropriate energy range that adequately probes all regions of the detector. Because detector response can vary greatly in various locations within the device, a spatially uniform calibration is important. We present a new method for calibration of liquid xenon (LXe) detectors, using the short-lived 83m-Kr. This source has transitions at 9.4 and 32.1 keV, and as a noble gas like Xe, it disperses uniformly in all regions of the detector. Even for low source activities, the existence of the two transitions provides a method of identifying the decays that is free of background. We find that at decreasing energies, the LXe light yield increases, while the amount of electric field quenching is diminished. Additionally, we show that if any long-lived radioactive backgrounds are introduced by this method, they will present less than 67E-6 events/kg/day in the next generation of LXe dark matter direct detection searchesComment: 9 pages, 9 figures. Accepted to Review of Scientific Instrument

Commissioning of the vacuum system of the KATRIN Main Spectrometer

The KATRIN experiment will probe the neutrino mass by measuring the beta-electron energy spectrum near the endpoint of tritium beta-decay. An integral energy analysis will be performed by an electro-static spectrometer (Main Spectrometer), an ultra-high vacuum vessel with a length of 23.2 m, a volume of 1240 m^3, and a complex inner electrode system with about 120000 individual parts. The strong magnetic field that guides the beta-electrons is provided by super-conducting solenoids at both ends of the spectrometer. Its influence on turbo-molecular pumps and vacuum gauges had to be considered. A system consisting of 6 turbo-molecular pumps and 3 km of non-evaporable getter strips has been deployed and was tested during the commissioning of the spectrometer. In this paper the configuration, the commissioning with bake-out at 300{\deg}C, and the performance of this system are presented in detail. The vacuum system has to maintain a pressure in the 10^{-11} mbar range. It is demonstrated that the performance of the system is already close to these stringent functional requirements for the KATRIN experiment, which will start at the end of 2016.Comment: submitted for publication in JINST, 39 pages, 15 figure