Estimation of ⁹⁹Mo production rates from natural molybdenum in research reactors

M Blaauw¹, D Ridikas², S Baytelesov³, P S Bedregal Salas⁴, Y Chakrova⁵, Cho Eun-Ha⁶, R Dahalan⁷, A H Fortunato⁸, R Jacimovic⁹, A Kling¹⁰, L Muñoz¹¹, N M A Mohamed¹², D Párkányi¹³, T Singh¹⁴, Van Dong Duong¹⁵

Affiliations

¹ Reactor Institute Delft, Delft University of Technology, Mekelweg 15, 2629 JB Delft, The Netherlands.
² Division of Physical and Chemical Sciences, Department of Nuclear Sciences and Applications, International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna, Austria.
³ Institute of Nuclear Physics, Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan, Ulug Gulomov Str., Tashkent, Uzbekistan 100214.
⁴ Instituto Peruano de Energia Nuclear, Avenida Canadá 1470, 41, Lima, Peru.
⁵ Institute of Nuclear Physics of Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Ibragimova 1, Almaty, Kazakhstan 050032.
⁶ RI Research Division, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, 989-111, Daedeok-daero, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 305-353 Korea.
⁷ Medical Technology Division, Malaysian Nuclear Agency, Bangi, 43000 Kajang, Selangor Malaysia.
⁸ Instituto Nacionale de Investigciones Nucleares, Carretera Mexico-Toluca S/N La Marquesa, Ocoyoacac, Mexico.
⁹ Jozef Stefan Institute, Jamova Cesta 39, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia.
¹⁰ Centro de Ciências e Tecnologias Nucleares and Laboratório de Engenharia Nuclear, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, E.N. 10 ao km 139,7,, 2695-066 Bobadela LRS, Portugal.
¹¹ Comisión Chilena de Energía Nuclear (CCHEN), Avenida Nueva Bilbao No. 12501, Las Condes, Santiago, Chile.
¹² Egypt Second Research Reactor (ETRR-2), Atomic Energy Authority (AEA), Abou Zabal, Cairo, 13759 Egypt.
¹³ Centre for Energy Research, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Konkoly Thege Miklós út 29-33, Budapest, 1121 Hungary.
¹⁴ Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Trombay, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400 085 India.
¹⁵ Vietnam Atomic Energy Institute, 01 Nguyen Tu Luc, Dalat, Vietnam.

PMID: 28111485
PMCID: PMC5219034
DOI: 10.1007/s10967-016-5036-6

Estimation of ⁹⁹Mo production rates from natural molybdenum in research reactors

M Blaauw et al. J Radioanal Nucl Chem. 2017.

. 2017;311(1):409-418.

doi: 10.1007/s10967-016-5036-6. Epub 2016 Sep 24.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Reactor Institute Delft, Delft University of Technology, Mekelweg 15, 2629 JB Delft, The Netherlands.
² Division of Physical and Chemical Sciences, Department of Nuclear Sciences and Applications, International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna, Austria.
³ Institute of Nuclear Physics, Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan, Ulug Gulomov Str., Tashkent, Uzbekistan 100214.
⁴ Instituto Peruano de Energia Nuclear, Avenida Canadá 1470, 41, Lima, Peru.
⁵ Institute of Nuclear Physics of Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Ibragimova 1, Almaty, Kazakhstan 050032.
⁶ RI Research Division, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, 989-111, Daedeok-daero, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 305-353 Korea.
⁷ Medical Technology Division, Malaysian Nuclear Agency, Bangi, 43000 Kajang, Selangor Malaysia.
⁸ Instituto Nacionale de Investigciones Nucleares, Carretera Mexico-Toluca S/N La Marquesa, Ocoyoacac, Mexico.
⁹ Jozef Stefan Institute, Jamova Cesta 39, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia.
¹⁰ Centro de Ciências e Tecnologias Nucleares and Laboratório de Engenharia Nuclear, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, E.N. 10 ao km 139,7,, 2695-066 Bobadela LRS, Portugal.
¹¹ Comisión Chilena de Energía Nuclear (CCHEN), Avenida Nueva Bilbao No. 12501, Las Condes, Santiago, Chile.
¹² Egypt Second Research Reactor (ETRR-2), Atomic Energy Authority (AEA), Abou Zabal, Cairo, 13759 Egypt.
¹³ Centre for Energy Research, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Konkoly Thege Miklós út 29-33, Budapest, 1121 Hungary.
¹⁴ Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Trombay, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400 085 India.
¹⁵ Vietnam Atomic Energy Institute, 01 Nguyen Tu Luc, Dalat, Vietnam.

PMID: 28111485
PMCID: PMC5219034
DOI: 10.1007/s10967-016-5036-6

Abstract

Molybdenum-99 is one of the most important radionuclides for medical diagnostics. In 2015, the International Atomic Energy Agency organized a round-robin exercise where the participants measured and calculated specific saturation activities achievable for the ⁹⁸Mo(n,γ)⁹⁹Mo reaction. This reaction is of interest as a means to locally, and on a small scale, produce ⁹⁹Mo from natural molybdenum. The current paper summarises a set of experimental results and reviews the methodology for calculating the corresponding saturation activities. Activation by epithermal neutrons and also epithermal neutron self-shielding are found to be of high importance in this case.

Keywords: Epithermal neutron self-shielding; Mo-99; Research reactor utilization; Tc-99 m production.

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Figures

**Fig. 1**
Specific saturation activities to be expected in an irradiation facility with a thermal neutron flux of 1 × 10¹³ cm⁻²s⁻¹, as a function of the thermal/epithermal flux ratio, for various values of α and for the two sample types, as calculated with Eqs. 14 and 15 in this paper

See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

1. Feasibility of producing molybdenum-99 on a small scale using fission of low enriched uranium or neutron activation of natural molybdenum, IAEA technical reports series No. 478
1. Ramamoorthy N, Adelfang P, Bradley E, Alldred K. The IAEA support to addressing shortages in 99Mo production and supplies. Nucl Med Biol. 2010;37:714. doi: 10.1016/j.nucmedbio.2010.04.168. - DOI
1. Pillai MRA, Knapp FF., Jr Molybdenum-99 production from reactor irradiation of molybdenum targets a viable strategy for enhanced availability of technetium-99m. Q J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2012;56:385–399. - PubMed
1. van der Marck SC, Koning AJ, Charlton KE. The options for the future production of the medical isotope 99Mo. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2010;37:1817–1820. doi: 10.1007/s00259-010-1500-7. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
1. Zykov MP, Kodina GE. Methods for production of Mo-99 (review) Radiochemistry. 1999;41:203–214.

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Estimation of ⁹⁹Mo production rates from natural molybdenum in research reactors

Affiliations

Estimation of ⁹⁹Mo production rates from natural molybdenum in research reactors

Authors

Affiliations

Abstract

Figures

References

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Full Text Sources

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