Producing radioisotopes for medical use with laser accelerators

by Jose Benlliure (CSIC-UV - Instituto de Física Corpuscular (IFIC), Universitat de València)

Wednesday 22 Apr 2026, 10:00 → 12:00 Europe/Bucharest

IFIN-HH/ELI-NP Training and Conference Center

Laser-plasma acceleration could enable the production of on-demand, low-cost doses of medical radioisotopes in an automated, user-friendly device. The compact size of laser-plasma accelerators would reduce their capital cost and installation requirements, particularly with regard to radiation shielding.

In this talk, I will describe the related research programme that we have developed in Spain, with a particular focus on our two laser facilities, L2A2 and CLPU. I will present our key findings on the production of 11C and discuss potential future approaches for cost-effective production using compact laser accelerators.