Future of Low Specific Activity Molybdenum-99/Technetium-99m Generator

A.      Mushtaq

doi:10.2174/1874471011205040325

Abstract

In last few years, the shortage of molybdenum-99 (99Mo) was felt in the developed and developing countries hospitals, where diagnostic nuclear medicine is practiced. To overcome the shortage of 99Mo various routes of its production by accelerators and reactors generating low and high specific activity products have been planned. High specific activity 99Mo obtained by fission of uranium-235 (235U) has completely dominated in the manufacturing of technetium-99m (99mTc) generators in last 3-4 decades, but due to proliferation and dirty bomb, issues non fission routes of 99Mo production are emphasized. Future of low specific activity 99Mo is discussed.

Keywords: High specific activity, Low specific activity, Molybdenum-99, Neutron activation, Radionuclide generator, Technetium-99m, Uranium-235 fission.

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