Low-Waste and Proliferation-Free Production of Medical Radioisotopes in Solution and Molten-Salt Reactors

Possible Applications of Modern Aqueous Homogeneous Reactors

“…By use of chemical extraction methods, the Mo-99 condensate can be collected from the reactor loop without removing the fissile fuel. This method would also eliminate the amount of waste that would be generated when using a solid uranium target, of which the uranium is only 0.4% spent, and the processing of which releases fission products and unused uranium into waste streams [22].…”

“…With the AHR, it is possible to create Sr-89 without the associated Sr-90 impurity by using extraction of the precursor gasses. At the ARGUS reactor at the Kurchatov Institute, Sr-89 of high purity is extracted by running the reactor for a few minutes at a time to generate the needed krypton precursors, then waiting for the shorter-lived Sr-90 precursor, Kr-90 (half-life of 33 s), to decay out faster than the relatively long-lived Sr-89 precursor, Kr-89 [22].…”

“…The production of other useful isotopes such as Xe-133 -another useful medical tracer, I-131 -a radiotherapy agent, and Cs-137 -a potent gamma emitter with many industrial uses, is also possible, and was demonstrated with ARGUS [22]. If other radioisotopes needed to be produced in solid form, an AHR could be designed with provisions for the insertion of targets.…”

Introductory Chapter: Introduction to Current Trends in Nuclear material Research and Technology

“…There are more than 160 different radioisotopes that are used regularly in different fields; these isotopes are produced either in a medium-or in a high-flux research reactors or particle accelerators (low or medium energy) [19,20]. In 2014, IAEA published the results of a meeting on current status and future trends on radioisotope application in industry.…”