Feasibility study of large-scale production of iodine-125 at the high temperature engineering test reactor

Ho, H. Q.   ; 本多 友貴*; 濱本 真平  ; 石井 俊晃 ; 藤本 望*; 石塚 悦男   

Ho, H. Q.; Honda, Yuki*; Hamamoto, Shimpei; Ishii, Toshiaki; Fujimoto, Nozomu*; Ishitsuka, Etsuo

The feasibility of a large-scale iodine-125 production from natural xenon gas at high-temperature gas-cooled reactors was investigated. A high-temperature engineering test reactor, which is located in Japan, was used as a reference HTGR reactor in this study. First, a computer code based on a Runge-Kutta method was developed to calculate the quantities of isotopes arising from the neutron irradiation of natural xenon gas target. This code was verified with a good agreement with a reference result. Next, optimization of irradiation planning was carried out. As results, with 4 days of irradiation and 8 days of decay, the I production could be maximized and the I contamination was within an acceptable level. The preliminary design of irradiation channels at the HTTR was also optimized. The case with 3 irradiation channels and 20-cm diameter was determined as the optimal design, which could produce approximately 180,000 GBq per year of I production.