Cyclotron Production of ⁹⁹Mo Radionuclide by Bombarding Zirconium Targets with Alpha Particle Beams

A possibility of manufacturing ⁹⁹Mo via a nuclear reaction with ⁹⁶Zr (α, n) in the R-7 cyclotron of the Tomsk polytechnic university is investigated. The beam energy of α-particles is 27 MeV for the beam current values 13, 15 and 22 μA. The targets are manufactured from natural zirconium shaped as disks measuring 30 mm in diameter and 1.5 mm in thickness. As a result of the experiments the designed yield of ⁹⁹Mo is found to be on the order of (1.62 ± 0.15) (MBq/(μA·h) for ⁹⁶Zr targets with 100% enrichment, which closely agrees with the yields reported by other authors. It is shown that a sufficient amount of ⁹⁹Mo can be output for technetium-99m to be manufactured at a regional level.