Feasibility study for 99mTc production

Abstract

This report presents an initial survey of data for a feasibility study on the production of the ^99mTc radioisotope on the Cyclotron model CV-28 installed at the IEN. Due to the global crisis in the supply of ^99mTc due to an unscheduled shutdown of a reactor by one of the major suppliers of this radioisotope, new alternatives have been sought for emergency production of ^99mTc. One proposal involves irradiating a molybdenum target with a proton beam.

There are four main nuclear routes for the production of the ^99mTc metastable isotope through bombardment with protons, only direct production, where ^99mTc is the final product, which occurs through the ¹⁰⁰Mo(p,2n)^99mTc reaction. The other three are indirect production routes: i) through the ¹⁰⁰Mo(p,pn)⁹⁹Mo reaction and the ⁹⁹Mo decay by ^99mTc beta emission; ii) through the ¹⁰⁰Mo(p,2p)⁹⁹Nb reaction and the decay from ⁹⁹Nb to ⁹⁹Mo and by beta emission to ^99mTc; iii) through the ⁹⁸Mo(p,?)^99mTc reaction. Natural molybdenum has an abundance of 9.63% for the ¹⁰⁰Mo isotope.