Simulation of 99Mo Production from 30 MeV Electron Linear Accelerator

T. Zawistowski, S. Wronka National Centre for Nuclear Research, A. Sołtana 7, Otwock-Świerk 05-400, Poland

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The purpose of the research was to simulate the process of 99Mo production. The most widely used isotope for medical imaging is 99mTc. This radionuclide is produced via 99Mo beta minus decay. A relatively new option is a linac-based way of obtaining 99Mo through a photonuclear reaction 100Mo(γ,n)99Mo with bremsstrahlung irradiation. The purpose of this study was to simulate the process of 99Mo production using a 30 MeV electron linear accelerator with a 100 μA average beam current. The Monte Carlo calculations were used for this purpose. The main goal of the presented work was to optimize the process of irradiation of the 100Mo target with an electron beam in order to produce 99Mo with the highest efficiency. Parameters like FWHM of the beam and thickness of conversion target were investigated. The simulation was carried out using the Monte Carlo method with FLUKA 2011.2x.4 and Flair_2.3-0_all. The study showed that the highest efficiency (photons production) among widely used conversion targets is at an about 3 mm thick round tungsten plate. Results of the executed simulations showed that there is a possibility of obtaining 300 GBq of 99Mo within three days of irradiation of a 99% enriched 100Mo target (φ=3 cm, 5 mm thickness).

DOI:10.12693/APhysPolA.139.451 topics: molybdenum-99, technetium-99m, irradiation, radioisotopes