Preparation of 99Mo and 99m Tc by 100Mo(γ,n) photonuclear reaction on an electron accelerator, MT-25 microtron

Molybdenum-99 was prepared by 100Mo(γ,n) photonuclear reaction on an electron accelerator, MT-25 microtron (FLNR). Natural Mo foil (9.6% 100Mo) and 100MoO3 (100% 100Mo) were used as the targets. The radiation yield of 99Mo was 3.2 kBq/(μA h mg 100Mo). Technetium-99m was isolated from the target material and concomitant radioactive impurities by an ion-exchange procedure. The possibility of preparing 99mTc generator from molybdenum carbonyl was studied. The content of radioactive impurities in the final 99mTc preparations was no higher than 10−5 Bq Bq−1.