**2.2 Isotope production**

One of the most important operations in the nuclear sector is the use of isotopic methods to create radioisotopes and radiopharmaceuticals (atomic energy in peacetime) [12, 13]. As a result, facilities like the Brookhaven Linear Isotope Producer, as well as others across the world, are being built to generate a range of radioisotopes and radiopharmaceuticals for delivery to nuclear medical and industrial communities for research and commercial uses. Additional facilities for isotope manufacturing include research nuclear reactors, accelerator facilities, and a variety of separation facilities. By hitting an element with a particle, radioactive isotopes can be created (a-particle, deuteron, proton, electron, neutron, and even high-energy x-rays). Particle beams of 100 s of MeV energy are typically employed at these facilities to produce these radioisotopes and radiopharmaceuticals for nuclear medicine, pharmaceutical industries, science, environmental agencies, and even industrial purposes.

There are over 1000 radioisotopes routinely generated in industrial facilities, but Technetium-99 m (TC-99 m) has attracted great attention due to its use in medical centers. Almost 10,000 hospitals worldwide today use these isotopes for cancer treatment and a variety of other nuclear medicine therapies [14]. Production is a daily task due to the pace of decay. Because of the enormous demand for these radioisotopes, there are often shortages or unstable supplies of Technetium-99 m (TC-99 m) for brachytherapy.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) occasionally supports and instructs facilities involved in the manufacture of these radioisotopes, particularly research reactors that prefer adding isotope productions to supplement those generated by other isotope production facilities. In Ghana, for example, the Ghana Research Reactor 1 (GHARR-1) is not now capable of creating radionuclides, although it has the capability of doing so shortly.

However, Egypt has been utilizing the Russian 2Mw reactor and a Norwegian-built radioisotope production plant to produce the following radio, isotopes: Iodine-131, sodium-24, potassium-42, chromium-51, phosphorus-32, and colloidal gold-198 since the sixties.
