Molybdenum-99 (99Mo): Past, Present, and Future
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Science and Technology of Nuclear Installations Molybdenum-99 (99Mo): Past, Present, and Future Guest Editors: Mushtaq Ahmad, George Vandegrift, and Pablo Cristini 99 Molybdenum-99 ( Mo): Past, Present, and Future Science and Technology of Nuclear Installations 99 Molybdenum-99 ( Mo): Past, Present, and Future Guest Editors: Mushtaq Ahmad, George Vandegrift, and Pablo Cristini Copyright © 2014 Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved. This is a special issue published in “Science and Technology of Nuclearstallations.”All In articles are open access articles distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Editorial Board Nusret Aksan, Switzerland Michel Giot, Belgium Manmohan Pandey, India AntonioC.M.Alvim,Brazil Valerio Giusti, Italy Yuriy Parfenov, Russia Won Pil Baek, Republic of Korea Horst Glaeser, Germany Yves Pontillon, France Stephen M. Bajorek, USA Satish Kumar Gupta, India Nik Popov, Canada George Bakos, Greece Ali Hainoun, Syria Piero Ravetto, Italy Jozsef Banati, Sweden Keith E. Holbert, USA Francesc Reventos, Spain Ricardo Barros, Brazil Kostadin Ivanov, USA Enrico Sartori, France Anis Bousbia Salah, Belgium Yacine Kadi, Republic of Korea Carlo Sborchia, France Giovanni B. Bruna, France Ahmed Khedr, Egypt Massimo Sepielli, Italy Nikola avlina, Croatia Tomasz Kozlowski, USA Arkady Serikov, Germany Xu Cheng, China Tomoaki Kunugi, Japan James F. Stubbins, USA Leon Cizelj, Slovenia Mike Kuznetsov, Germany Iztok Tiselj, Slovenia Alejandro Clausse, Argentina Hyeong-Y. Lee, Republic of Korea Rizwan Uddin, USA Francesco D’ Auria, Italy Bundit Limmeechokchai, Thailand Eugenijus Upuras, Lithuania Marcos P. de Abreu, Brazil Jiri Macek, Czech Republic Richard Wright, Norway Giovanni Dell’Orco, France Annalisa Manera, USA Chao Xu, China Juan Carlos Ferreri, Argentina Borut Mavko, Slovenia X. George Xu, USA Nikolay Fil, Russia Oleg Melikhov, Russia Yanko Yanev, Bulgaria Cesare Frepoli, USA Rafael Mir, Spain Zhiwei Zhou, China Giorgio Galassi, Italy Josef Misak, Czech Republic Enrico Zio, Italy Regina Galetti, Brazil Rahim Nabbi, Germany Massimo Zucchetti, Italy Contents Molybdenum-99 (99Mo):Past,Present,andFuture, Mushtaq Ahmad, George Vandegrift, and Pablo Cristini Volume2014,ArticleID839369,3pages 99 99 mTc Generator Development: Up-to-Date mTc Recovery Technologies for Increasing the 99 Effectiveness of Mo Utilisation,VanSoLe Volume 2014, Article ID 345252, 41 pages 99 Immobilisation of Higher Activity Wastes from Nuclear Reactor Production of Mo, Martin W. A. Stewart, Eric R. Vance, Sam A. Moricca, Daniel R. Brew, Catherine Cheung, Tina Eddowes, and Walter Bermudez Volume 2013, Article ID 926026, 16 pages History and Actual State of Non-HEU Fission-Based Mo-99 Production with Low-Performance Research Reactors,S.Dittrich Volume 2013, Article ID 514894, 9 pages 99 99 Evaluation of Mo and Tc Productions Based on a High-Performance Cyclotron,J.Esposito, G.Vecchi,G.Pupillo,A.Taibi,L.Uccelli,A.Boschi,andM.Gambaccini Volume 2013, Article ID 972381, 14 pages Production Cycle for Large Scale Fission Mo-99 Separation by the Processing of Irradiated LEU Uranium Silicide Fuel Element Targets, Abdel-Hadi Ali Sameh Volume 2013, Article ID 704846, 14 pages Assembly and Irradiation Modeling of Residual Stresses in Low-Enriched Uranium Foil-Based Annular Targets for Molybdenum-99 Production, Srisharan G. Govindarajan, Brian S. Graybill, Philip F. Makarewicz, Zhentao Xie, and Gary L. Solbrekken Volume 2013, Article ID 673535, 9 pages The Fission-Based99Mo Production Process ROMOL-99 and Its Application to PINSTECH Islamabad, Rudolf Muenze, Gerd Juergen Beyer, Richard Ross, Gerhard Wagner, Dieter Novotny, Erik Franke, Mustansar Jehangir, Shahid Pervez, and Ahmad Mushtaq Volume 2013, Article ID 932546, 9 pages Influence of the Generator in-Growth Time on the Final Radiochemical Purity and Stability of 99mTc Radiopharmaceuticals,L.Uccelli,A.Boschi,M.Pasquali,A.Duatti,G.DiDomenico, G. Pupillo, J. Esposito, M. Giganti, A. Taibi, and M. Gambaccini Volume 2013, Article ID 379283, 7 pages A Solution-Based Approach for Mo-99 Production: Considerations for Nitrate versus Sulfate Media, Amanda J. Youker, Sergey D. Chemerisov, Michael Kalensky, Peter Tkac, Delbert L. Bowers, and George F. Vandegrift Volume 2013, Article ID 402570, 10 pages Hindawi Publishing Corporation Science and Technology of Nuclear Installations Volume 2014, Article ID 839369, 3 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/839369 Editorial Molybdenum-99 (99Mo): Past, Present, and Future Mushtaq Ahmad,1 George Vandegrift,2 and Pablo Cristini3 1 Isotope Production Division, Pakistan Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology, Nilore, Islamabad 45650, Pakistan 2 Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 South Cass Avenue, Argonne, IL 60439, USA 3 Ezeiza Atomic Center, National Commission of Atomic Energy, Buenos Aires, Argentina Correspondence should be addressed to Mushtaq Ahmad; [email protected] Received 1 December 2013; Accepted 1 December 2013; Published 29 January 2014 Copyright © 2014 Mushtaq Ahmad et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. 99 99 99 Molybdenum-99 ( Mo,half-life=66h)isaparentradionu- and low specific activity Mo or mTc directly is being clide of a diagnostic nuclear isotope. It decays in technetium- researched. 99 99 m ( mTc, half-life = 6 h), which is used in over 30 Investigators were invited to contribute original research million procedures per year around the world. To meet articles as well as review articles to stimulate the continuing 99 99 worldwide demand for mTc-radiopharmaceuticals, fresh efforts to understand the issues related to production of Mo 99 99 Mo/ mTc must be delivered regularly to nuclear medical that is acceptable to end users and environmentalists. The 99 centers, week after week. The risks of global Mo supply article selected for this special issue represent the rich and disruptions increased significantly since 1995 and have been many-faceted technical know-how that we have the pleasure experienced for different reasons. Since the last quarter of ofsharingwithourreaders.Wewouldliketothankthe 2007, global Mo-99 supplies have been severely disrupted by authors for their excellent contributions and patience in recurring operational problems at a handful of aging research assisting us. Finally, the fundamental work of all reviewers on reactor (NRU Canada, HFR Netherlands, SAFARI-1 South these papers is also highly appreciated. This special issue contains nine papers, where four papers Africa, BR2 Belgium and OSIRIS France) and processing 99 deal with the production of Mo using LEU targets in a facilities (MDS Nordion in Canada, Mallinckrodt in the 99 reactor. Two papers are on mTc generators development and Netherlands, IRE in Belgium, and NTP in South Africa). 99 These few facilities are meeting the bulk of the worldwide its utilization. One paper deals with the production of Mo 99 99m demand. With the aging of the Mo supply network, it is and Tc using a cyclotron. An article on immobilization 99 necessary for world Mo-99 market to consider new reliable of higher activity wastes from reactor production of Mo is 99 supply sources. The present and future shortage of mTc or also included in this issue. One paper deals with research and development of chemical process, hot-cell infrastructure, and its parent is a worldwide issue. A research reactor is only one 99 99 99m commercial production of Mo. piece of the linear supply chain of Mo/ Tc that exists 99 In the paper entitled “ Generator Development: today. In April 2010, the United States and 46 other countries 99 signedanagreementtophaseoutHEUforcivilianusesto Up-to-date recovery technologies for increasing the reduce proliferation concerns. Now scientists and engineers effectiveness of 99Mo utilization”byV.S.Le(Australia) 99 99 involved in Mo production are working to determine how presents a review on the Mo sources available today and 99 99m to continue to make Mo with (1) low-enriched uranium on the Tc generators developed up to now for increasing 235 99 (LEU, <20% U) or (2) other alternatives that do not require the effectiveness of Mo utilization. The latest results of 235 fissioning of U. To overcome the shortage of various routes the endeavors in this field are also surveyed in regard to 99 of its production by accelerators and reactors generating high the technical solution for overcoming the shortage of Mo 2 Science and Technology of Nuclear Installations supply. The technical topics are grouped and discussed to radiopharmaceuticals” by L. Uccelli et al. (Italy) describes reflectthesimilarityinthetechnologicalprocessofeach both theoretical investigations and preliminary irradiations 100 group. The following topics are included in this review. tests on Mo-enriched samples. The authors argue that 99g 99m 99m 99 both the Tc/ Tc ratio and the Tc specific activ- (i) High specific activity Mo (the issues for current itywillbedifferentinaccelerator-producedTcthanthat production, efforts for more effectiveutilization, the 99m 99 milked from generator, and this might affect radiopharma- Tc generator based on high-specific activity Mo, ceutical procedures. The aim of this work was the evalua- 99m 99 99 and Tc concentration units) tion of possible impacts of different gTc/