Scientific Reports (Jun 2021)

Recovery of high specific activity molybdenum-99 from accelerator-induced fission on low-enriched uranium for technetium-99m generators

  • M. Alex Brown,
  • Nathan Johnson,
  • Artem V. Gelis,
  • Milan Stika,
  • Anna G. Servis,
  • Alex Bakken,
  • Christine Krizmanich,
  • Kristin Shannon,
  • Peter Kozak,
  • Amanda Barnhart,
  • Chad Denbrock,
  • Nicolas Luciani,
  • Terry Grimm,
  • Peter Tkac

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-92704-z
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11, no. 1
pp. 1 – 7

Abstract

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Abstract A new process was developed to recover high specific activity (no carrier added) 99Mo from electron-accelerator irradiated U3O8 or uranyl sulfate targets. The process leverages a novel solvent extraction scheme to recover Mo using di(2-ethylhexyl) phosphoric acid following uranium and transuranics removal with tri-n-butyl phosphate. An anion-exchange concentration column step provides a final purification, generating pure 99Mo intended for making 99Mo/99mTc generators. The process was demonstrated with irradiated uranium targets resulting in more than 95% 99Mo recovery and without presence of fission products or actinides in the product.