Production Techniques of Fission Molybdenum-99

Abstract

Production of fission Mo-99 ¡Reprocessing of nuclear fuel /Target fabrication Abstract Generally two different techniques are available for molybdenum-99 production for use in medical technetium-99 generation.The first one is based on neutron irradiation of molybdenum targets of natural isotopie composition or enriched in molybdenum-98. In these cases the Mo-99 is generated via the nuclear reaction "Mo (n,y) "Mo.Although this process can be carried out at low expenditure it gives a product of low specific activity and, hence, restricted applicability.In a second process Mo-99 is obtained as a result of the neutron induced fission of U-235 according to 235 U (n, 0" Mo.This technique provides a product with a specific activity several orders of magnitude higher than that obtained from the " Mo (η, γ)" Mo nuclear reaction and perhaps even more important up to several thousands curies of Mo-99 per production run.

Separation of Fission 99Mo on Charcoal Columns Impregnated with Tin(IV) Chloride for Use in Preparation of 99mTc Generators

“…Under these irradiation conditions a considerable amount of fission products is produced in addition to »3 mCi "Mo. The irradiated target was digested at 30 °C in 3 cm 3 4 Μ NaOH and few drops of 30% H 2 0 2 for 12 h. The remaining residue containing the bulk of uranium, most of the lanthanides and a part of Zr and Ru was discarded [12,28], The supernatant containing "Mo in the oxidation state (VI) was withdrawn and warmed to expel excess H 2 0 2 . Then, it was acidified to <0.25 Μ HCl (total volume «7 cm 3 ).…”

“…Chromatographic column techniques are generally preferred for the separation of fission-"Mo than solvent extraction [14][15][16][17][18] and precipitation [19 -22]. In this respect, "Mo was separated from different fission solutions by adsorption on alumina [23,24], silver-coated alumina [10,25], silver-coated charcoal [26,27] and organic exchangers [12,28]. The obtained "Mo eluates are usually seriously contaminated with the radionuclides 131,132^ 132 Τβ) 95^ 95^ 103 Ru> ^ ^ 2γ> 29].…”

“…The obtained "Mo eluates are usually seriously contaminated with the radionuclides 131,132^ 132 Τβ) 95^ 95^ 103 Ru> ^ ^ 2γ> 29]. Therefore, additional purifications of "Mo are needed using repeated cyclings on different adsorbents and high temperature volatilization [10,12,20,21,24,25,28,[30][31][32][33], In previous work, the sorption behaviour of "Mo(VI) and some relevant fission products on charcoal impregnated with tin(IV) chloride in HCl solutions was investigated [34,35], The aim of this work is to investigate the separation of "Mo from fission products on impregnated charcoal columns and to evaluate the separated "Mo for use in preparations "Mo/ 99m Tc generators.…”

Production of fission 99Mo at the VVR-ts nuclear reactor in a closed-loop process with respect to U

“…Ali and Ache [7] reported a procedure for U regeneration after the 99 Mo isolation using Bio-Rex 5 weakly basic ion-exchange resins. The U separation from fission nuclides using Bio-Rex resin strongly depends on the concentration of carbonate ions in the eluent and takes relatively long time.…”

Nuclear Separations for Radiopharmacy: The Need for Improved Separations To Meet Future Research and Clinical Demands

“…An objective of this collection of manuscripts is to complement the 1987 proceedings of the International Atomic Energy Agency seminar on "Radionuclide Generator Technology" 11,[13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] and the other reviews that have since appeared. 10,21,22 This collection of manuscripts adds to the principally wet-chemical separations reviewed previously, 10,21,22 as both membrane-and resin-based chromatographic systems are discussed, as are high-temperature gas thermochromatographic separations.…”