Development and design for Mo-production facility in JMTR

At Oarai Research and Development Center, Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) being advanced is the plan of refurbishing Japan Materials Testing Reactor (JMTR) to start the operation in FY 2011. As one of effective use of the JMTR, JAEA has a plan to product 99Mo, a parent nuclide of 99mTc. 99mTc is most commonly used as a radiopharmaceutical in the field of nuclear medicine. Currently the supplying of 99Mo depends only on imports from foreign countries, therefore JAEA is aiming at domestic production of a part of 99Mo in cooperation with industrial users. As JAEA's activities, mentioned are the process, the selection and fabric of the irradiation facilities for 99Mo production, the technical study of commercializing equipment after irradiation, and the cost evaluation for 99Mo production. (author)