Experimental cross section evaluation for innovative 99Mo production via the (α,n) reaction on 96Zr target

The high-specific activity 99 Mo accelerator-based production, via the (α,n) reaction on 96 Zr-enriched target, has been investigated in the present work. The excitation function measurement has been performed in the energy range 8–34 MeV at the ARRONAX facility, using the well-known stacked foils technique on natural zirconium as target. A general good agreement in the cross section trend has been observed, once compared to former measurements. A different (i.e. higher) peak value and a shift of about 2 MeV towards larger energies have however been found. Assuming a fully enriched 96 Zr target irradiated by an α-beam at suitable energy ( E = 25 MeV), the 99 Mo production yield has thus been estimated. At last the alternative production routes, based on the 96 Zr(α,n) 99 Mo and 100 Mo(p,x) 99 Mo/ 99m Tc reactions, are compared.