Generation of medical radioisotopes using accelerator neutrons

Nagai, Yasuki; Hashimoto, Kazuyuki

In Japan, about 0.9 million diagnostic procedures are carried out using Tc, the daughter nuclide of Mo with a half-life of 66 h, separated from Mo; all Mo radioisotopes are imported. Most of Mo has been produced by the fission reaction of highly enriched U in research reactors in the world. However, a number of incidents of the reactors caused the shortage of Mo worldwide, which triggered widespread discussions on the reliable supply of Mo. We proposed a new route to produce a large quantity of high quality Mo using fast neutrons from an accelerator.