Production of 99Mo for Nuclear Medicine by 100Mo(n, 2n)99Mo

We have proposed a new route to produce Mo-99 for nuclear medicine by the Mo-100(n, 2n)Mo-99 reaction. The reaction cross section is known to be similar to 1.5 b in the neutron energy, E, range from 12 to 17 MeV: 10-times larger than the thermal-neutron capture cross section of Mo-98. By irradiating an enriched Mo-100 target for 198 h with neutrons of similar to 10(13) n/(cm(2) s) at E-n similar to 14 MeV, one call produce 79 GBq/g specific activity of Mo-99. Since the cross sections for Mo-100(n, p)Nb-100, Mo-100(n, np)Nb-99 and Mo-100(n, alpha)Zr-97 at 12 <= E-n <= 17 MeV are small, less than a few mb, radioactive waste during and/or after chemical processing of Mo-99 Would not be a serious problem. The proposed route could bring a major breakthrough in the solution of ensuring a constant and reliable supply of Mo-99 without using highly enriched U-235.