Recovery of high specific activity molybdenum-99 from accelerator-induced fission on low-enriched uranium for...

A new process was developed to recover high specific activity (no carrier added) ⁹⁹Mo from electron-accelerator irradiated U₃O₈ or uranyl sulfate targets. The process leverages a novel solvent extraction scheme to recover Mo using di(2-ethylhexyl) phosphoric acid following uranium and transuranics removal with tri-n-butyl phosphate. An anion-exchange concentration column step provides a final purification, generating pure ⁹⁹Mo intended for making ⁹⁹Mo/^99mTc generators. The process was demonstrated with irradiated uranium targets resulting in more than 95% ⁹⁹Mo recovery and without presence of fission products or actinides in the product.