NSF Award
2011800
The Historically Black Colleges and Universities Undergraduate Program (HBCU-UP), through Targeted Infusion Projects, supports the development, implementation, and study of evidence-based innovative models and approaches for improving the preparation and success of HBCU undergraduate students so that they may pursue STEM graduate programs and/or careers. North Carolina Central University (NCCU) intends to enhance its nuclear science capabilities for the purpose of producing innovative research while training undergraduates in the field. Results from the project may have application in nuclear medicine and support interdisciplinary STEM research. Furthermore, the project provides the opportunity to prepare more scholars from underrepresented groups in STEM fields. Successful implementation of the project will establish a model for other analogous programs at peer institutions.<br/><br/>The overall goal is to establish a low-energy nuclear accelerator facility to enhance scientific research capabilities and expand science and engineering training at NCCU. The specific goals of the project are to (1) establish the facility to foster interdisciplinary research; (2) provide intensive skills and ancillary skills training in nuclear science to undergraduates, and (3) develop research capabilities in the production and study of medical radioisotopes. The radioisotopes used in the medical diagnosis and treatment are typically produced in nuclear reactors or with a cyclotron. The most commonly used radioisotope for medical needs is technetium-99m (99mTc, a meta-stable isotope of element technetium). Novel methods to produce 99mTc are being investigated, including reactions initiated by particles incident on long-lived molybdenum isotope, 100Mo. This work will focus on development of technology to use low-energy particle accelerator which can produce particle beams up to 1 million-volt, or 1 MeV to produce 99mTc. The reaction of interest involves transforming a 100Mo nucleus into 99Mo (one less neutron) by bombarding it with a neutron beam and ejecting two neutrons from the target (n + 100Mo ? 99Mo + 2n). The 99Mo is an unstable isotope and decays into the desired isotope 99mTc with a half-life of 67 hours. However, this reaction requires the incident neutron to be between 12 and 17 million-electron-volts. As our low-energy accelerator can only produce beams up to 1 MeV, the desired neutrons are produced using a secondary reaction in which a tritium target (heaviest isotope of hydrogen) is bombarded with a low-energy (less than 1 MeV) lighter isotope of hydrogen, deuterium. This reaction in turn produces neutrons which can be used to further produce 99Mo/99mTc isotopes.<br/><br/>This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
