Isotopic Composition of Enriched 100Mo for Production of Medical 99mTc by 100Moe p; 2nt99mTc

99mTc, used worldwide for medical imaging, is obtained as a daughter nuclide of 99Mo produced by the fission of enriched 235U in reactors. To ensure the routine domestic use of 99mTc to replace aging reactors, 99mTc production by the 100Mo(p, 2n)99mTc reaction using enriched 100Mo samples in cyclotrons is a promising route. Appropriate Mo isotopic compositions of the enriched 100Mo sample should be determined to produce 99mTc with low radionuclide impurity that meets the requirements of the US Pharmacopoeia. This study proposes a method to determine the appropriate Mo compositions of the enriched 100Mo. Here, individual excitation functions for Mo(p, x)Tc determined using measured excitation functions for natMo(p, x)Tc were combined with different Mo isotopic compositions to determine the estimated radionuclide impurity of 99mTc; that was compared with the radionuclide impurity of the USP requirement to determine the appropriate Mo isotopic composition as a function of proton energy suitable for different energy cyclotrons.