Abstracts and Available Papers Presented at the 1999 International RERTR Meeting
MODIFICATION OF
BASE-SIDE 99MO PRODUCTION PROCESSES
FOR LEU METAL-FOIL
TARGETS
G.
F. Vandegrift, R. A. Leonard, S. Aase, J. Sedlet, Y. Koma,
C.
Conner, C. R. Clark, and M. K. Meyer
Argonne
National Laboratory
Argonne,
Illinois, and Idaho Falls, Idaho, U.S.A.
ABSTRACT
Argonne National Laboratory is cooperating with the
National Atomic Energy Commission of the Argentine Republic (CNEA) to convert
their 99Mo production process, which uses high enriched uranium
(HEU), to low-enriched uranium (LEU). The program is multifaceted; however, discussed in this paper are (1)
results of laboratory experiments to develop means for substituting LEU metal-foil
targets into the current process and (2) preparation of uranium-alloy or
uranium-metal/aluminum-dispersion targets. Although 99Mo production is a multi-step process, the first
two steps (target dissolution and primary molybdenum recovery) are by far the
most important in the conversion. Commonly, once molybdenum is separated from the bulk of the uranium, the
remainder of the process need not be modified. Our results show that, up to this point in our study, conversion of the
CNEA process to LEU appears viable.