Conceptual study for new 99Mo-production facility in JMTR

Refurbishment of facilities and equipments for the JMTR is in progress in order to re-start at FY 2011. The refurbishment has been carried out since 2007, and new irradiation facilities will be installed in order to accomplish user's requirements. As one of the new irradiation facilities, JAEA has a plan to produce 99Mo, a parent nuclide of 99mTc. At present, radioisotopes are indispensable for a diagnosis and treatment in the medical field. Demand of 99mTc (half life 6h) used as a radiopharmaceutical increases up year by year. Moreover, the expansion of demand will be expected in future. However, the supply of 99Mo in Japan depends fully on the import from foreign countries. Therefore, it is necessary to supply 99Mo stably by the domestic production. There are two methods of 99Mo (half life 65.9h) production; the one is the nuclear fission (n, fiss) method, and the other is the (n, γ) method using the 98Mo target. 99Mo production in the JMTR with the (n, γ) method was studied and evaluated. As a result, it was found that the partial amount of 99Mo demand is possible to supply stably if a new hydraulic-rabbit-irradiation-facility (HR) is used. In this paper, results of a conceptual study of the new facility for 99Mo production was reviewed, and was presented at 2nd international symposium Material Test Reactors. (author)