feasibility study of mo-99 production using high-power electron linac: nuclear and thermal-mechanical analysis based on photoneutron interaction

This work presents an alternative method for mo-99 production as a parent nuclide of tc-99m which is the most used radioisotope in diagnostic imaging processes. regarding to some benefits of accelerator-based methods over reactor-based methods for mo-99 production, the electron linac-based method has been selected. in this way of production, two approaches (one-stage and two-stage) are available using photoneutron reaction in mo-100 target using bremsstrahlung photons. the superiority of one-stage approach and optimal dimension of target has been demonstrated by nuclear simulation using mcnpx2.6 code. thermal analysis of the optimized target has been performed by comsol software, which has been led to select the indirect cooling system. the final suggested conceptual design of the target includes nine mo-100 stripe plates with 0.2, 3, and 30 cm in thickness, width and length, respectively which being surrounded by two copper clamps as the cooling ducts. the velocity of 2.5 m/s of inlet coolant (water) is sufficient for the suggested cooling system to satisfy the conditions of the turbulent regime as the desired cooling regime.