Technetium-99m is widely used in many diagnostic nuclear medicine procedures. Typically, 99mTc is milked from a generator containing high specific activity molybdenum-99 sorbed on a column of alumina. Historically, the 99Mo has been predominantly produced by the fission of highly enriched uranium targets. However, due to shortages resulting from reactor outages and the desire to move away from highly enriched uranium (HEU) targets, alternative production methods for the production of 99Mo have gained interest.            Alternative production methods for 99Mo include neutron irradiation of 98Mo enriched targets, 98Mo(n,g)99Mo, and gamma irradiation of 100Mo enriched targets, 100Mo(g,n)99Mo. Both of these alternative 99Mo production methods yield 99Mo of considerably lower specific activity than production via HEU fission. Due to the relatively high mass of Mo, efficient separation of 99mTc from this low specific activity 99Mo requires chromatrographic systems which selectively retain 99mTc while rejecting 99Mo. Flowsheets for the separation of 99mTc from low specific activity 99Mo and the performance of these flowsheets using an automated chromatographic system will be discussed.

Methods for the separation of Tc-99m from low specific activity Mo-99

243rd National Meeting (2012)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.