Experimental cross section evaluation for innovative 99Mo production via the (α,n) reaction on 96Zr target

The high-specific activity Mo-99 accelerator-based production, via the (alpha,n) reaction on Zr-96-enriched target, has been investigated in the present work. The excitation function measurement has been performed in the energy range 8-34 MeV at the ARRONAX facility, using the well-known stacked foils technique on natural zirconium as target. A general good agreement in the cross section trend has been observed, once compared to former measurements. A different (i.e. higher) peak value and a shift of about 2 MeV towards larger energies have however been found. Assuming a fully enriched Zr-96 target irradiated by an alpha-beam at suitable energy (E = 25 MeV), the Mo-99 production yield has thus been estimated. At last the alternative production routes, based on the Zr-96(alpha,n)Mo-99 and Mo-100(p,x)Mo-99/Tc-99m reactions, are compared.