Production of 99 Mo/ 99m Tc by photonuclear reaction using a nat MoO 3 target

Amount estimation of production of 99 Mo required for medical applications was carried out by utilizing an electron linear accelerator with 30 g of nat MoO 3 target, and 15.10 MBq of 99 Mo was obtained after 9.5 min of irradiation with bremsstrahlung photons by a 35 MeV-80 μA electron beam. Requirements for further scaled-up production with 100 MoO 3 target (100 g, φ20 mm × t30 mm) were analyzed using Monte Carlo simulation. It was found that it had to be irradiated with 20 h of bremsstrahlung photons by a 35 MeV-1 mA electron beam to produce 1340 GBq of 99 Mo.