Activation cross sections of proton induced nuclear reactions on tungsten: Special regard to the formation of 186Re

Cross-sections for the production of ^{181,182m,g,183,184g,186g}Re radioisotopes from proton bombardment of natural tungsten have been measured using the stacked foil activation technique for proton energies up to 14.7 MeV. The results were analyzed and compared with the reported experimental data, and the theoretical excitation functions as calculated by the EMPIRE 3.2.3 and TALYS 1.9 codes. Several attempts have been made to reproduce the experimental excitation functions by different EMPIRE input parameters, and a reasonable agreement was attained. While measuring the activity of radionuclide ¹⁸¹Re, the intensity of the emitted 360-keV γ-photon was estimated at around 10 %, about half of the value reported in various databases. The integral yield of the investigated radioisotopes has been calculated, and a particular interest in the ^186gRe therapeutic radionuclide was discussed.