ANL progress on the cooperation with CNEA for the MO-99 production: Base-side digestion process

Conversion from high-enriched uranium (HEU) to low-enriched uranium (LEU) targets for the Mo-99 production requires certain modifications of the target design, the digestion and the purification processes. ANL and the Argentine Comision Nacional de Energia Atomica (CNEA) are collaborating to overcome all the concerns caused by the conversion of the CNEA process to use LEU foil targets. A new digester with stirring system has been successfully applied for the digestion of the low burn-up U foil targets in KMnO4 alkaline media. In this paper, we report the progress on the development of the digestion procedure utilizing effective stirring and focusing on minimization of the liquid radioactive waste. (author)