Abstracts and Available Papers Presented at the
2002 International RERTR Meeting

ANL PROGRESS IN DEVELOPING A TARGET AND PROCESS FOR CONVERTING CNEA Mo-99 PRODUCTION TO LEU

G. F. Vandegrift, A. Gelis, S. Aase, A. Bakel, E. Freiberg, and C. Conner

Argonne National Laboratory 9700 S. Cass Avenue., Argonne, IL--USA

ABSTRACT

The primary mission of the Reduced Enrichment in Research and Test Reactors (RERTR) Program is to facilitate the conversion of research and test reactor fuel and targets from high-enriched uranium (HEU) to low-enriched uranium (LEU).  One of the current goals at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) is to convert ⁹⁹Mo production at Argentine Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica (CNEA) from HEU to LEU targets.  Specifically addressed in this paper is ANL R&D related to this conversion: (1) designing a prototype production vessel for digesting irradiated LEU foils in alkaline solutions, (2) developing means to improve digestion efficiency, and (3) modifying ion-exchange processes used in the CNEA recovery and purification of ⁹⁹Mo to deal with the lower volumes generated from LEU‑foil digestion

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