Abstracts and Available Papers Presented at the
1995 International RERTR Meeting

DEVELOPMENT AND PROCESSING OF LEU TARGETS
FOR Mo-99 PRODUCTION--OVERVIEW OF THE ANL PROGRAM*

J. L. Snelgrove, G. L. Hofman, T. C. Wiencek, C. T. Wu, G. F. Vandegrift,
S. Aase, B. A. Buchholz, D. J. Dong, R. A. Leonard, and B. Srinivasan
Argonne National Laboratory
Argonne, Illinois U.S.A.

D. Wu
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Urbana, Illinois U.S.A.

A. Suripto and Z. Aliluddin
Indonesian National Atomic Energy Agency
Serpong, Indonesia

Presented at the1995 International Meeting on
Reduced Enrichment for Research and Test Reactors
September 18-21, 1995
Paris, France

*Work supported by the US Department of Energy
Office of Nonproliferation and National Security
under Contract No. W-31-109-38-ENG.

ABSTRACT

Most of the world's supply of Tc-99m for medical purposes is currently produced from the decay of Mo-99 derived from the fissioning of high-enriched uranium (HEU). Substitution of low-enriched uranium (LEU) silicide fuel for the HEU alloy and aluminide fuels used in most current target designs will allow equivalent Mo-99 yields with little change in target geometries. Substitution of uranium metal for uranium oxide films in other target designs will also allow the substitution of LEU for HEU.

During 1995, we have continued to study the modification of current targets and processes to allow the conversion from HEU to LEU. A uranium-metal-foil target was fabricated at ANL and irradiated to prototypic burnup in the Indonesian RSG-GAS reactor. Postirradiation examination indicated that minor design modifications will be required to allow the irradiated foil to be removed for chemical processing. Means to dissolve and process LEU foil have been developed, and a mock LEU foil target was processed in Indonesia. We have also developed means to dissolve the LEU foil in alkaline peroxide, where it can be used to replace HEU targets that are currently dissolved in base before recovering and purifying the Mo-99. We have also continued work on the dissolution of U3Si2 and have a firm foundation on dissolving these targets in alkaline peroxide. The technology-exchange agreement with Indonesia is well underway, and we hope to expand our international cooperations in 1996.