Abstracts and Available Papers Presented at the
1997 International RERTR Meeting

PROGRESS IN CHEMICAL PROCESSING OF LEU TARGETS
FOR 99Mo PRODUCTION—1997

G. F. Vandegrift, C. Conncr, J. Sedlet, and D G. Wygmans
Argonne Nationai Laboratory
Argonne. Illinois USA

Wu
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Urbana, Illinois USA

F. Iskander and S. Landsberger
University of Texas
Austin, Texas USA

ABSTRACT

Presented here are recent experimental results of our continuing development activities associated with converting current processes for producing fission-product Mo from targets using high-enriched uranium (HEU) to low-enriched uranium (LEU). Studies were focused in four areas: (I) measuring the chemical behavior of iodine, rhodium, and silver in the LEU-modified Cintichem process, (2) performing experiments and calculations to assess the suitability of zinc fission barriers for LEU metal foil targets, (3) developing an actinide separations method for measuring alpha contamination of the purified Mo product, and (4) developing a cooperation with Sandia National Laboratories and Los Alamos National Laboratory that will lead to approval by the U.S. Federal Drug Administration for production of ⁹⁹Mo from LEU targets. Experimental results continue to show the technical feasibility of converting current HEU processes to LEU.