Recovery of Molybdenum Precursor Material in the Cyclotron-Based Technetium-99m Production Cycle

Instruments

Alessandra Boschi¹  Sara Cisternino²  Hanna Skliarova²  Juan Esposito²  Carlos Rossi Alvarez²  Paolo Buso²  Sara Carturan²  Petra Martini² 

[1] Department of Morphology, Surgery and Experimental Medicine, University of Ferrara, 44121 Ferrara, Italy;Legnaro National Laboratories, Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics (LNL-INFN), Viale dell’Università, 35020 Legnaro, Italy;

关键词: radioisotope production;    Molybdenum-100;    cyclotron;    molybdenum material recovery;   

DOI  :  10.3390/instruments3010017

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

A closed-loop technology aiming at recycling the highly ¹⁰⁰Mo-enriched molybdenum target material has been developed in the framework of the international research efforts on the alternative, cyclotron-based ^99mTc radionuclide production. The main procedure steps include (i) ¹⁰⁰Mo-based target manufacturing; (ii) irradiation under proton beam; (iii) dissolution of ¹⁰⁰Mo layer containing ^9×Tc radionuclides (produced by opened nuclear reaction routes) in concentrated H₂O₂ solution; and (iv) Mo/Tc separation by the developed radiochemical module, from which the original ¹⁰⁰Mo comes as the “waste„ alkaline aqueous fraction. Conversion of the residual ¹⁰⁰Mo molybdates in this fraction into molybdic acids and MoO₃ has been pursued by refluxing in excess of HNO₃. After evaporation of the solvent to dryness, the molybdic acids and MoO₃ may be isolated from NaNO₃ by exploiting their different solubility in water. When dried in vacuum at 40 °C, the combined aqueous fractions provided MoO₃ as a white powder. In the last recovery step MoO₃ has been reduced using a temperature-controlled reactor under hydrogen overpressure. An overall recovery yield of ~90% has been established.

【 授权许可】

Unknown