Development of New Target Stations for the South African Isotope Facility

The development of new target stations for radioisotope production based on a dedicated 70 MeV commercial cyclotron (for protons) is described. Currently known as the South African Isotope Facility (SAIF), this initiative will free the existing separated-sector cyclotron (SSC) at iThemba LABS (near Cape Town) to mainly pursue research activities in nuclear physics and radiobiology. It is foreseen that the completed SAIF facility will realize a three-fold increase in radioisotope production capacity compared to the current programme based on the SSC.