China Becomes First to Master Key Technology for Producing Medical Molybdenum-99
TapTechNews June 8th news, the Institute of Atomic Energy, China National Nuclear Corporation, announced a cooperation with Qinshan Nuclear Power to produce samples of molybdenum-99 that meet medical requirements and have a nuclear purity of 99% by utilizing self-developed low-enriched uranium targets irradiated by the reactor, and it has successfully passed on-site acceptance.
The officials pointed out that this indicates that China has become the first country in the world to master the key technology of using commercial nuclear power plant reactors to produce medical fissile molybdenum-99, which is expected to reverse the long-term situation of China's reliance on imports of medical molybdenum-99 and achieve the localization of medical molybdenum-99.
TapTechNews note: Molybdenum-99, with the nuclide symbol 99Mo, has a half-life of 65.94 hours and mainly comes from the fission products of nuclear tests, one of the radioactive nuclides released by reactors, radioactive wastewater discharged from pressurized water reactors and boiling water reactors, etc.
Molybdenum (Mo) isotopes have broad application prospects in the fields of nuclear medicine, basic physics, advanced nuclear fuel, etc. In the field of nuclear medicine, high-abundance isotopes of molybdenum-98 and molybdenum-100 are the precursor nuclides for the production of radioactive isotope molybdenum-99. Further decay of molybdenum-99 will generate technetium-99m (half-life is 6 hours and cannot be stored for a long time), and the latter is an important medical radioactive isotope, known as the diagnostic expert in nuclear medicine, and currently its usage accounts for more than 80% of all the usage of clinical diagnostic radioactive isotopes.
The traditional production method of molybdenum-99 is to irradiate high-enriched uranium targets in research reactors to make uranium-235 fission and produce molybdenum-99, but this traditional production method requires the use of high-enriched uranium, which has the risk of proliferation.
Previously, all of China's medical molybdenum-99 depended on imports. To solve this problem, in 2021, the State Atomic Energy Agency and other eight ministries and commissions jointly released the Medium and Long-Term Development Plan of Medical Isotopes (2021-2035), clearly stating that the realization of the localization of molybdenum-99 will be a key development task.
Based on this, on the basis of fully mastering the preparation technology of low-enriched uranium targets, the Institute of Nuclear Technology, Atomic Energy Institute, proposed a brand-new idea of using high neutron flux commercial CANDU reactor to irradiate low-enriched uranium targets to produce medical molybdenum-99, and coordinated with Qinshan Nuclear Power to successively overcome the key technologies such as the design and preparation of low-enriched uranium targets suitable for CANDU reactor irradiation, target dissolution, fission molybdenum-99 extraction, and development of process equipment. With the assistance of China Nuclear Power Research and Design Institute and other units, the relevant work was completed, and the molybdenum-99 sample that meets medical requirements was successfully obtained, laying a technical foundation for China's independent engineering production of medical fissile molybdenum-99.