Methodological analysis demonstrates alternative production of technetium-99m via photonuclear reactions, highlighting a reactor-free solution to clinical isotope shortages.
99m Tc with a 6 hour half-life is one of the most important medical isotopes used for the Single-Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) inspection in hospitals of US, Canada, Europe and Japan. 99m Tc isotopes are extracted by the milking method from parent 99Mo isotopes with a 66 hour half-life. The supply of 99Mo isotopes now encounters a serious crisis. Hospitals may not suitably receive 99Mo medical isotopes in near future, due to difficulties in production by research nuclear reactors. Many countries are now looking for alternative ways to generate 99Mo isotopes other than those with research reactors. We discuss a sustained availability of 99m Tc isotopes via the nat Mo(γ, n) photonuclear reaction, and discuss to solve technical problems for extracting pure 99m Tc isotopes from other output materials of photonuclear reactions.
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Fujiwara et al. (2017) studied this question.
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