Patent Number: 
Section: claims

1. A method for producing no-carrier-added radioactive tin (NCA radiotin), the method comprisingirradiating a target with at least a 10 μA beam of accelerated charged particles, wherein the target comprises a metallic antimony monolith sample encapsulated by a hermetic shell comprising a material substantially resistant to interaction with antimony to form an irradiated antimony sample,removing the irradiated antimony sample from the shell by dissolving said irradiated antimony sample to form a dissolved antimony sample in an aqueous phase resulting in NCA radiotin with a specific activity of at least 500 Ci/g, andrecovering NCA radiotin from the dissolved irradiated antimony sample by adding an organic phase to said aqueous phase and recovering said radiotin in said aqueous phase. 2. The method of claim 1 wherein the target comprises antimony monolith sample is obtained bymelting antimony inside the shell at 631° C. to 700° C., ormelting antimony outside the shell at 631° C. to 700° C. and inserting the cooled antimony monolith sample into the shell. 3. The method of claim 1 wherein the shell comprises stainless austenitic high-alloy steel. 4. The method of claim 1 wherein the shell comprises metallic molybdenum. 5. The method of claim 1 wherein the shell comprises hard non-porous graphite. 6. The method of either claim 4 or claim 5 wherein the shell external surface is protected from exterior coolant by a material stable to this coolant under irradiation. 7. The method of either claim 4 or claim 5 wherein the shell external surface is coated with metallic nickel at a thickness ranging from 20 μm to 60 μm. 8. The method of claim 3 wherein the metallic antimony has a thickness of from 2 mm to 30 mm, and the shell has a beam inlet window and an outlet window, the shell at the inlet and outlet windows having a thickness of from 50 μm to 300 μm. 9. The method of claim 5 wherein the thickness of metallic antimony ranges from 2 mm to 30 mm, and the shell has a beam inlet window and an outlet window, the thickness of the shell at the inlet and outlet windows ranging from 0.5 mm to 1.5 mm. 10. The method of claim 3 further comprising dissolving the shell with 8 M HCl to 12 M HCl. 11. The method of claim 7 wherein the nickel coating is etched by 0.5 M to 2 M nitric acid, and the molybdenum shell is dissolved in 3 M to 8 M NaOH with adding hydrogen peroxide. 12. The method of claim 1 wherein the shell comprises hard non-porous graphite that is opened after irradiation by mechanical destruction and irradiated antimony is mechanically isolated from graphite. 13. The method of claim 1 wherein the aqueous phase includes hydrohalogenic acid and nitric acid. 14. The method of claim 13 wherein the organic phase includes hydrohalogenic acid. 15. The method of claim 14 wherein the aqueous phase includes hydrochloric acid (HCl) at a concentration ranging from 9 M to 12 M. 16. The method of claim 14 wherein the aqueous phase antimony concentration of the first extraction stage ranges from 0.3 M to 0.9 M. 17. The method of claim 14 using three to five stages of extraction. 18. The method of claim 14 wherein the volume ratio of aqueous phase to organic phase ranges from 1:1 to 1:1.5. 19. The method of claim 14 wherein at least one extraction stage comprises mixing the organic phase and the aqueous phase for 5-10 min., followed by a phase separation period of 30-60 min. 20. The method of claim 14 wherein NCA radiotin is further separated from at least one of antimony, a radioisotope of tellurium, or a radioisotope of indium by adding an extracted aqueous phase to a sorbent layer in a chromatographic column and running a sorbent washing solution through said column. 21. The method of claim 20 using two to three chromatographic runs. 22. The method of claim 20 wherein the sorbent layer in the chromatographic column is silicon dioxide having grain dimensions ranging from 0.05 mm to 0.4 mm. 23. The method of claim 20 wherein the sorbent layer in the chromatographic column ranges from 5 cm to 15 cm height and 0.5 cm to 1.5 cm diameter. 24. The method of claim 20 wherein sorption is processed in a solution containing citric ions at a concentration at least five times higher than an antimony concentration, but not lower than 0.5 M. 25. The method of claim 24 wherein the citric solution pH ranges from pH 4.5 to pH 6.0. 26. The method of claim 24 wherein the citric solution pH ranges from pH 5.4 to pH 5.6. 27. The method of claim 20 wherein, after sorption, the column is washed by 20 ml to 70 ml 0.5 M sodium citrate, and then by 30 ml to 100 ml water containing citric acid, wherein both solutions have a pH ranging from pH 4.5 to pH 6. 28. The method of claim 27 wherein the pH value of the citric solutions ranges from pH 5.4 to pH 5.6. 29. The method of claim 20 wherein NCA radiotin is subsequently eluted from the chromatographic sorbent by HCl at a concentration ranging from 5 M to 7 M. 30. The method of claim 29 wherein the elution is processed with from 5 ml to 20 ml of HCl. 31. The method of claim 20 wherein said sorbent washing solution passes through said column at an elution rate from 0.1 ml/min to 3 ml/min. 32. The method of claim 1 resulting in NCA radiotin with a specific activity of 500-1500 Ci/g.