Patent Number: 
Section: claims

1. A method for generating metastable technetium-99 and molybdenum-99 comprising:accelerating deuterons;bombarding a first target material comprising molybdenum-98 by the accelerated deuterons;generating molybdenum-99 and metastable technetium-99 in the first target material;capturing neutrons escaping from the first target material in a second target material comprising molybdenum-98 surrounding, at least in part, the first target material;generating molybdenum-99 and metastable technetium-99 in the second target material; andseparating molybdenum-99 and metastable technetium-99 from the first and second target materials. 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:passing the neutrons through a hydrogenous material between the first, inner target material and the second, outer target material, prior to being captured by the second, outer target material. 3. The method of claim 1, comprising:sequentially bombarding the first target material by the accelerated deuterons at a plurality of locations. 4. The method of claim 3, comprising selectively sequentially bombarding the first target material at a plurality of locations by:deflecting the accelerated deuterons by a magnetic field to the plurality of locations. 5. The method of claim 3, comprising sequentially bombarding the first target material at a plurality of locations by rotating the target. 6. The method of claim 1, comprising accelerating the deuterons by a cyclotron. 7. The method of claim 1, comprising:separating technetium-99 and molybdenum-99 from the first and second target materials by chromatography. 8. A method for generating metastable technetium-99 and molybdenum-99 comprising:accelerating deuterons;selectively, sequentially deflecting the accelerated deuterons by a magnetic field to bombard a target material comprising molybdenum-98 by the accelerated deuterons at respective different target material locations, at respective different times;generating molybdenum-99 and metastable technetium-99 in the target material; andseparating the generated molybdenum-99 and the generated metastable technetium-99 from the target material by:a first column containing resin with relatively higher retention of molybdenum-99 and relatively lower retention of metastable technetium-99, anda second column containing resin with relatively higher retention of metastable technetium-99 and relatively lower retention of molybdenum-99.