Alice predictions on the accelerator production of molybdenum-99

The ALICE code was used to calculate the excitation functions for proton induced reactions on 100Mo that lead to the production of Nb, Mo and Tc isotopes. The ALICE code predicts a maximum cross section of the order of 100 mb for the 100Mo(p,pn)99Mo nuclear reaction. ALICE predicts that the production of a few Curies of 99Mo is feasible if high intensity (mA) protons are degraded from 50→30 MeV in a target of highly isotopically enriched 100Mo. The ALICE code cannot be used to predict the cross sections for the isomeric states for the 100Mo(p, 2p)99m+gNb→99Mo reactions. However, the predicted cross section for protons on 100Mo to yield 99Nb suggests that the (p,2p) reaction channel does not contribute significantly to the thick target yield of 99Mo. Several considerations suggest that accelerator production of 99Mo→99mTc generators is not a practical economic alternative to fission produced 99Mo. Considerations for the cyclotron production of 99mTc are discussed.