V. A. Tarasov

Transmutation of Metallic 99Tc into Ruthenium under Irradiation in High-Flux SM Reactor

Transmutation of 99Tc upon irradiation of metallic technetium discs 6 mm in diameter and 0.3 mm thick in a neutron trap of high-flux SM reactor for 72.7 effective full-power days (100 mW thermal power) was studied. At a total neutron fluence of 8 × 1021 cm-2 with the thermal component of 7.3 × 1021 cm-2, about 34% of 99Tc is convereted to yield 0.8 g of ruthenium, which agrees within the limits of the determination error with the results of Monte-Carlo calculations. For ruthenium formed under these conditions to be used in practice without any restrictions, the target should be cooled for three years to decrease the 103Ru activity and the decontamination factor with respect to 99Tc should be about 3 × 108.

Transmutation of 99Tc and preparation of artificial stable ruthenium: I. transmutation of metallic 99Tc in a high-flux SM reactor

Technetium transmutation into ruthenium in a high-flux SM reactor was numerically simulated. The results were compared with the experimental data on isolation of technogenic stable Ru form irradiated technetium targets.

NEUTRON FLUX DENSITY PROFILING DURING IRIDIUM IRRADIATION

Abstract Using the perturbation method, the dependence of the specific activity of 192Ir on the variation of neutron flux density is investigated. It has been shown that sensitivity of the specific activity of 192Ir value at a given irradiation time depends on the time-point of neutron flux perturbation, being greater if perturbation is introduced at the end of the irradiation cycle. Practical realisation of a proposed scheme will allow an increase in 192Ir specific activity together with savings in reactor fuel, due to the lower level of reactor power at the beginning of the cycle.