McNamara Bruce K, O'Hara Matthew J, Clark Richard A, Morrison Samuel S, Soderquist Chuck Z, Scheele Randall D
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory PO Box 902, Battelle Blvd Richland Wa 99352 USA
Flibe Energy Richland Wa 99352 USA.
RSC Adv. 2020 Jan 21;10(6):3472-3478. doi: 10.1039/c9ra10270a. eCollection 2020 Jan 16.
Production of the important Tc medical isotope parent, molybdenum-99 (Mo), the fissioning of high- and low-enriched uranium (HEU/LEU) targets followed by target dissolution in acid and solution-phase purification of Mo is time-consuming, generates quantities of corrosive radioactive waste, and can result in the release of an array of radionuclides to the atmosphere. An alternative Mo purification method has been devised that has the potential to alleviate many of these issues. Herein, we demonstrate the feasibility of a rapid Mo/Tc gas-phase separation from UO. The results indicate that volatile [Mo]Mo can be captured downstream of the reacted solid mixture on a column bed (trap) of alumina; the majority of the captured [Mo]Mo can be subsequently eluted from the alumina trap with a few milliliters of water. >1.0 × 10 single pass decontamination of U and the collected [Mo]Mo product is demonstrated. This simple thermo-fluorination technique has the potential to provide a rapid methodology for routine Mo production.
重要的锝医用同位素母体钼 -99（Mo）的生产过程中，高浓缩铀（HEU）和低浓缩铀（LEU）靶材裂变后，将靶材在酸中溶解并对钼进行溶液相提纯，这一过程耗时较长，会产生大量腐蚀性放射性废物，还可能导致一系列放射性核素释放到大气中。人们已经设计出一种替代的钼提纯方法，该方法有可能缓解其中许多问题。在此，我们展示了从UO中快速进行钼/锝气相分离的可行性。结果表明，挥发性的[Mo]Mo可以在反应后的固体混合物下游，被捕集在氧化铝柱床（捕集器）上；随后，大部分被捕集的[Mo]Mo可用几毫升水从氧化铝捕集器中洗脱出来。已证明对铀和收集到的[Mo]Mo产物单次通过的去污系数>1.0×10。这种简单的热氟化技术有可能为常规钼生产提供一种快速方法。
