Radioactive isotopes have a number of applications in industry and science including sterilisation, quality control, material thickness and welding checks, nuclear medicine, radioactive tracers, isotopic labelling and many others.
Many of these applications use naturally occurring radioisotopes. However, some applications such as positron emission tomography (PET) scans require isotopes that need to be produced artificially (e.g. 11C and 18F isotopes). Artificial production may also be required where naturally occurring ones are in short supply, such as 99mTc.
Proof of concept tests have shown that high power lasers are capable of producing such radioisotopes, with laser repetition rate a critical factor. As EPAC will have one of the highest repetition rates of any petawatt laser globally, it has potential for development as a source of artificial radioisotopes, which could prove very valuable.