Mo-99 Production Using LEU Targets

PROGRESS IN CHEMICAL TREATMENT OF LEU TARGETS
BY THE MODIFIED CINTICHEM PROCESS

D. Wu and S. Landsberger

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Urbana, Illinois USA

G.F. Vandegrift

Argonne National Laboratory
Argonne, Illinois 60439-4841 USA

ABSTRACT

Presented here are recent experimental results on tests of a modified Cintichem process for producing ⁹⁹Mo from low enriched uranium (LEU). Studies were focused in three areas: (1) testing the effects on ⁹⁹Mo recovery and purity of dissolving LEU foil in nitric acid alone, rather than in sulfuric/nitric acid mixture currently used, (2) measuring decontamination factors for radionuclide impurities in each purification step, and (3) testing the effects on processing of adding barrier materials to the LEU metal-foil target. The experimental results show that switching from dissolving the target in the sulfuric/nitric mixture to using the nitric acid alone should cause no significant difference in ⁹⁹Mo product yields or purity. Further, the results show that overall decontamination factors for gamma emitters in the LEU-target processing are high enough to meet the purity requirements for ⁹⁹Mo product. The results also show that the selected barrier materials, Cu, Fe, and Ni, do not interfere with ⁹⁹Mo recovery and can be removed during chemical processing of the LEU target.

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