Patent Number: 
Section: abstract

The present invention provides a method for producing molybdenum-99 comprising: i) providing an electron accelerator; ii) providing a molybdenum converter/target unit (Mo-CTU) comprising one or more metallic components, wherein each one of said metallic components is made of a material selected from the group consisting of natural molybdenum, molybdenum-100, molybdenum-98, and mixtures thereof; iii) directing an electron beam generated via said electron accelerator onto said Mo-CTU to produce a braking radiation (bremsstrahlung); iv) employing said bremsstrahlung onto said Mo-CTU to produce molybdenum-99 and neutrons via a photo-neutron reaction; v) slowing down the neutrons produced in step iv) with a low atomic liquid, e.g. distilled water; and optionally vi) employing the neutrons produced in step iv) to produce a complementary amount of molybdenum-99 via a neutron capture reaction on said Mo-CTU. The invention further provides an apparatus for producing molybdenum-99.