New Routes To U.S. Moly

In the February 11 Issue:

New routes to U.S. moly

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View larger version | Currently, the conventional approach to making molybdenum-99 uses neutrons to bombard uranium-235 atoms, which fission, or split, to form Mo-99 and other products (top). An alternative approach being investigated by a Wisconsin team would use an electron-beam accelerator to produce neutrons, which would strike targets containing molybdenum-98 to create Mo-99 (middle). One New York researcher suggests shooting high-energy photons at a target of Mo-100 atoms (bottom). Mo-100 atoms would then shed a neutron, forming Mo-99. Credit: A. Nandy

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Comments 1

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Hm, suggests the possibility of combining the Moly100 and Moly98 processes: use the neutron shed by Moly100 to join with Moly98, both producing Moly99.

Brian Hall

Sep. 13, 2009 at 4:38am

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