Estimation of Production Yield of 99Mo for Medical Use using Neutrons from natC(d, n) at Ed=40 MeV

We estimated the production yield of Mo-99 from Mo-100(n, 2n)Mo-99 using neutrons produced by bombarding a natural carbon target, C-nat, with 40 MeV 5 mA deuterons. We used the latest data for the angular and energy distributions of neutrons from C-nat(d, n) and the evaluated cross section of Mo-100(n, 2n)Mo-99 given in the Japanese Evaluated Nuclear Data Library to estimate the Mo-99 yield. The Mo-99 yields were obtained for different distances d between the carbon target and the Mo-100 sample, and for different Mo-100 sample radii and thicknesses. We typically obtained a 7.1 TBq activity of Mo-99 at the end of neutron irradiation for two days for a Mo-100 sample (251 g) placed at d 2 cm. The obtained Mo-99 activities show that a substantial fraction of the current Mo-99 demand in Japan could be met by adopting the proposed production method.