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Title: Preliminary investigations on the use of uranium silicide targets for fission Mo-99 production

Abstract

The National Atomic Energy Commission (CNEA) of Argentine Republic owns and operates an installation for production of molybdenum-99 from fission products since 1985, and, since 1991, covers the whole national demand of this nuclide, carrying out a program of weekly productions, achieving an average activity of 13 terabecquerel per week. At present they are finishing an enlargement of the production plant that will allow an increase in the volume of production to about one hundred of terabecquerel. Irradiation targets are uranium/aluminium alloy with 90% enriched uranium with aluminium cladding. In view of international trends held at present for replacing high enrichment uranium (HEU) for enrichment values lower than 20 % (LEU), since 1990 the authors are in contact with the RERTR program, beginning with tests to adapt their separation process to new irradiation target conditions. Uranium silicide (U{sub 3}Si{sub 2}) was chosen as the testing material, because it has an uranium mass per volume unit, so that it allows to reduce enrichment to a value of 20%. CNEA has the technology for manufacturing miniplates of uranium silicide for their purposes. In this way, equivalent amounts of Molybdenum-99 could be obtained with no substantial changes in target parameters and irradiation conditionsmore » established for the current process with Al/U alloy. This paper shows results achieved on the use of this new target.« less

Authors:
; ;
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
OSTI Identifier:
567630
Report Number(s):
ANL/RERTR/TM-20; CONF-9409107-
ON: DE98000036; TRN: 98:003333
Resource Type:
Conference
Resource Relation:
Conference: International meeting on reduced enrichment for research and test reactors, Williamsburg, VA (United States), 18-22 Sep 1994; Other Information: PBD: Aug 1997; Related Information: Is Part Of Proceedings of the 1994 international meeting on reduced enrichment for research and test reactors; PB: 427 p.
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
22 NUCLEAR REACTOR TECHNOLOGY; MOLYBDENUM 99; ISOTOPE PRODUCTION; MODERATELY ENRICHED URANIUM; URANIUM SILICIDES; ARGENTINE CNEA; ISOTOPE PRODUCTION REACTORS

Citation Formats

Cols, H, Cristini, P, and Marques, R. Preliminary investigations on the use of uranium silicide targets for fission Mo-99 production. United States: N. p., 1997. Web.
Cols, H, Cristini, P, & Marques, R. Preliminary investigations on the use of uranium silicide targets for fission Mo-99 production. United States.
Cols, H, Cristini, P, and Marques, R. 1997. "Preliminary investigations on the use of uranium silicide targets for fission Mo-99 production". United States. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/567630.
@article{osti_567630,
title = {Preliminary investigations on the use of uranium silicide targets for fission Mo-99 production},
author = {Cols, H and Cristini, P and Marques, R},
abstractNote = {The National Atomic Energy Commission (CNEA) of Argentine Republic owns and operates an installation for production of molybdenum-99 from fission products since 1985, and, since 1991, covers the whole national demand of this nuclide, carrying out a program of weekly productions, achieving an average activity of 13 terabecquerel per week. At present they are finishing an enlargement of the production plant that will allow an increase in the volume of production to about one hundred of terabecquerel. Irradiation targets are uranium/aluminium alloy with 90% enriched uranium with aluminium cladding. In view of international trends held at present for replacing high enrichment uranium (HEU) for enrichment values lower than 20 % (LEU), since 1990 the authors are in contact with the RERTR program, beginning with tests to adapt their separation process to new irradiation target conditions. Uranium silicide (U{sub 3}Si{sub 2}) was chosen as the testing material, because it has an uranium mass per volume unit, so that it allows to reduce enrichment to a value of 20%. CNEA has the technology for manufacturing miniplates of uranium silicide for their purposes. In this way, equivalent amounts of Molybdenum-99 could be obtained with no substantial changes in target parameters and irradiation conditions established for the current process with Al/U alloy. This paper shows results achieved on the use of this new target.},
doi = {},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/567630}, journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Fri Aug 01 00:00:00 EDT 1997},
month = {Fri Aug 01 00:00:00 EDT 1997}
}

Conference:
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