Over the last years the 177Lu radioisotope has attracted great interest for the use in therapeutic and diagnostic procedures simultaneously, being what is now called a theranostic radioisotope. There are mainly two ways of producing this radioisotope, by direct neutron capture in a 176Lu target (the \direct route") or by irradiating a 176Yb sample, producing 177Yb that will then decay to 177Lu (also referred as the \indirect route"). In this work the feasibility of producing 177Lu in the IEA-R1 nuclear reactor via the direct route was assessed, and the speci c activity that could be obtained was estimated both experimentally and theoretically, allowing for a discussion on the feasibility of commercially producing 177Lu by 176Lu neutron capture in the IEA-R1 reactor.