Categories of Radionuclides

Methods of Production of Radioisotopes

Radionuclides used in Nuclear Medicine are all synthetic and fall into 4 general categories:

• Generator-produced

• Thermal Neutron Reactor-produced

• Cyclotron-produced

• fission reactor-produced.

There are many choices of radioisotopes for performing studies in humans. Table 1 below lists these isotopes and gives half-life and photopeak energy values as well as % abundance of each different photon.