Recycle of enriched Mo targets for economic production of 99Mo/99mTc medical isotope without use of enriched uranium

A new recycle process for recovery of enriched Mo-98 or Mo-100 used for production of Mo-99/Tc-99m medical isotope was developed. In this process, Mo is precipitated from spent NorthStar Mo/Tc generator solution containing similar to 200 g/L Mo as K2MoO4 in 5 M KOH using acetic acid and then washed with nitric acid. High purification factors from potassium were achieved, and typical Mo recovery yields were similar to 95 %. The recycle process was performed with up to 260 g of Mo per batch and can be easily implemented for processing of up to 400 g of Mo.