Assessment of impurity production upon 14 MeV fusion neutron irradiation of both natural and isotopically enriched 100Mo samples

99 m Tc, a decay product of 99 Mo, is the most widely used radionuclide in single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT). Currently, 99 Mo is mainly produced by nuclear reactors as isotope separation from fission products by 235 U-enriched (HEU or LEU) uranium targets. Due to problems related t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:European physical journal plus 2024-09, Vol.139 (9), p.791
Main Authors: Palomba, S., Dellepiane, G., Falconi, R., Faccini, R., Fazio, A., Capogni, M., Capone, M., Colangeli, A., Felice, P. De, Vannozzi, A., Pietropaolo, A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Applied and Technical Physics
Atomic
Complex Systems
Computed tomography
Condensed Matter Physics
Fission products
Impurities
Irradiation
Isotope separation
Isotopic enrichment
Laboratories
Mathematical and Computational Physics
Metal powders
Molecular
Molybdenum
Neutron irradiation
Neutrons
Nuclear fission
Nuclear reactors
Optical and Plasma Physics
Photon emission
Physics
Physics and Astronomy
Radiation
Radioisotopes
Reactors
Regular Article
Theoretical
Uranium
X-rays
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Summary:99 m Tc, a decay product of 99 Mo, is the most widely used radionuclide in single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT). Currently, 99 Mo is mainly produced by nuclear reactors as isotope separation from fission products by 235 U-enriched (HEU or LEU) uranium targets. Due to problems related to the ageing of nuclear fission reactors, new techniques are presently taken into consideration. In this paper, the 99 Mo production based on the 100 Mo(n,2n) 99 Mo reaction route, using 14 MeV fusion neutrons, is investigated. To this end, two samples were tested, manufactured as natural molybdenum metallic powder encapsulated in a container and 100 Mo-enriched molybdenum metallic pellet, respectively. The main goal of the experimental investigation was to determine the isotope inventory, as well as the amount of impurities generated in the neutron-irradiated samples. The experimental results were compared to numerical calculations obtained by means of MCNP and FISPACT-II codes. A prediction of the expected activity of 99 Mo under the aforementioned irradiation conditions is also provided for the future high-brilliance 14 MeV neutron source named SORGENTINA-RF.
ISSN:2190-5444
DOI:10.1140/epjp/s13360-024-05225-9