Experimental method of molybdenum-99 obtained in TRIGA SSR reactor

Molybdenum-99 is one of the most important radionuclides used in medicine. It can be obtained by irradiating powder molybdenum targets inside a nuclear reactor in an neutron flux activation process. The purpose of this paper is to perform an experiment and to compare the experimental value and theoretical calculus. We used for irradiation of MoO₃ sample the aluminum rabbit of TRIGA SSR. The irradiation location is K11 situated in reflector beryllium block. In the irradiation polypropylene cartridge, with molybdenum target was inserted a gold thin foil, used for the determination of thermal neutron flux. The irradiated molybdenum sample was measured using a gamma ray spectrometry system with hyper-pure germanium crystal. The gamma ray spectra were processed using GENIE 2000 software. The activation value of the Mo-99 measured, was approximately identical with the one obtained in theoretical calculation. The neutron activation of Molybdenum powder, may be used in a safely and efficient way, with controlled induced activities to obtain molybdenum-99. (author).