Estimation of
99Mo production rates from natural molybdenum in research reactors.
J Radioanal Nucl Chem 2016;
311:409-418. [PMID:
28111485 PMCID:
PMC5219034 DOI:
10.1007/s10967-016-5036-6]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/03/2016] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Molybdenum-99 is one of the most important radionuclides for medical diagnostics. In 2015, the International Atomic Energy Agency organized a round-robin exercise where the participants measured and calculated specific saturation activities achievable for the 98Mo(n,γ)99Mo reaction. This reaction is of interest as a means to locally, and on a small scale, produce 99Mo from natural molybdenum. The current paper summarises a set of experimental results and reviews the methodology for calculating the corresponding saturation activities. Activation by epithermal neutrons and also epithermal neutron self-shielding are found to be of high importance in this case.
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