The molybdenum solar neutrino experiment

The molybdenum solar neutrino experiment will probe the time-averaged neutrino flux during and before the Pleistocene epoch through the measurement of 98Tc produced by neutrino reactions on 98Mo. It is estimated that 10,000 tons of molybdenum ore from the deeply buried Henderson deposit will contain 108 atoms of 98Tc. Technetium is separated from the ore by absorbing it from the acid-scrub stream of a commercial molybdenite roasting plant. For each technetium measurement the oxidized scrub stream (113L/min) is passed through large beds of anion exchange resin. Prior to ashing the resin, coabsorbed molybdenum is removed using a NaCl/NaOH eluent. Solvent extraction and ion exchange techniques are used to purify the technetium from rhenium and residual molybdenum. Both positive and negative thermal ionization mass spectrometric techniques have been developed to analyze technetium at the 108 atom level