-MoO
whiskers in
Mo/
Tc radioisotope production and
Mo/
Tc extraction using hot atoms
Ngo, M. C.*; Fujita, Yoshitaka
; Suzuki, Tatsuya*; Do, T. M. D.*; Seki, Misaki
; Nakayama, Tadachika*; Niihara, Koichi*; Suematsu, Hisayuki*
Technetium-99m (
Tc) is one of the most important radioisotopes for diagnostic radio-imaging applications.
Tc is a daughter product of the
Mo isotope. There are two methods used to produce
Mo/
Tc: the nuclear fission (n,f) and the neutron capture (n,
) methods. Between them, the (n,f) method is the main route, used for approximately 90% of the world's production. However, the (n,f) method faces numerous problems, including the use of highly enriched uranium, the release of highly radioactive waste, and nonproliferation problems. Therefore, the (n,
) method is being developed as a future replacement for the (n,f) method. In this work,
-MoO
whiskers prepared by the thermal evaporation method and
-MoO
particles were irradiated in a nuclear reactor to produce
Mo/
Tc via neutron capture. The irradiated targets were dispersed into water to extract the
Mo/
Tc. As a result,
-MoO
whisker yielded higher
Mo extraction rate than that from
-MoO
. In addition, by comparing the dissolved
Mo concentrations in water, we clarified a prominent hot-atom of
-MoO
whiskers. This research is the first demonstration of
-MoO
being used as an irradiation target in the neutron capture method. On the basis of the results,
-MoO
is considered a promising irradiation target for producing
Mo/
Tc by neutron capture and using water for the radioisotope extraction process in the future.