Abstracts and Available Papers Presented at the
1995 International RERTR Meeting

PROCESSING OF LEU TARGETS FOR Mo-99 PRODUCTION --
TESTING AND MODIFICATION OF THE CINTICHEM PROCESS*

D. Wu and S. Landsberger
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Urbana, Illinois U.S.A.

B. A. Buchholz and G. F. Vandegrift
Argonne National Laboratory
Argonne, IL USA

Presented at the1995 International Meeting on
Reduced Enrichment for Research and Test Reactors
September 18-21, 1995
Paris, France

*Work supported by the US Department of Energy
Office of Nonproliferation and National Security
under Contract No. W-31-109-38-ENG.

ABSTRACT

Recent experimental results on testing and modification of the Cintichem process to allow substitution of low enriched uranium (LEU) for high enriched uranium (HEU) targets are presented in this report. The main focus is on Mo-99 recovery and purification by its precipitation with alpha-benzoin oxime. Parameters that were studied include concentrations of nitric and sulfuric acids, partial neutralization of the acids, molybdenum and uranium concentrations, and the ratio of alpha-benzoin oxime to molybdenum. Decontamination factors for uranium, neptunium, and various fission products were measured. Experiments with tracer levels of irradiated LEU were conducted for testing the Mo-99 recovery and purification during each step of the Cintichem process. Improving the process with additional processing steps was also attempted. The results indicate that the conversion of molybdenum chemical processing from HEU to LEU targets is possible.