Isotopic composition of enriched Mo for production of medical Tc by Mo()Tc

Hashimoto, Shintaro  ; Nagai, Yasuki*

Tc, which is a daughter nuclide of Mo, is used worldwide for medical imaging. However, there is a problem with the supply of Tc (Mo) due to the replacement of aging reactors. A method to produce Tc by irradiating Mo with protons using medical cyclotrons has been proposed. In this study, we presented a method to determine individual excitation functions for Mo()Tc using measured excitation functions for Mo()Tc. The method was validated by comparing estimated radionuclide purities of Tc in enriched Mo samples using the determined excitation functions with measured ones. In this study, we found that the content of Mo, Mo, and Mo should be low in order to produce Tc with high radionuclide purity. The results of this study play an important role in discussion of the required Mo compositions in enriched Mo, taking into account the constraints of each facility.