## 1 Introduction
Out of eight papers that used the (_p_,_n_) reaction for \({}^{89}\)Zr production, five used Y foil targets [20, 21, 23, 26, 27], two used sputtered Y onto Cu [24, 25], and one used Y\({}_{2}\)O\({}_{3}\) pellets [22]. Although the sputtered targets provided superior heat transfer and therefore allowed for higher beam currents, we chose to use Y foil for ease of use. For a hypothetical irradiated Y foil that contains 100 mCi of \({}^{89}\)Zr, \(<\)0.3 \(\upmu\)g of \({}^{89}\)Zr atoms are present in the foil, and these product atoms must be extracted chemically to give the desired product--a solution containing \({}^{89}\)Zr\({}^{4+}\) ions. This separation has been performed with mixed results using several different techniques [23], including solvent extraction [21, 22, 26, 27, 37], solid cation exchange [21, 22], solid anion exchange [22, 26, 27, 38], and  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l l} \hline
**Nuclear Decay:** & **Simplified decay scheme:** \\ Half-life, \(t_{1/2}\) & 3.27 days \\ Daughter isotope & 100\% \({}^{99}\)Y (stable) \\ Decay modes & 23\% \(\beta^{+}\) \\  & 77\% EC \\ \(\beta^{+}\) energy, \(E_{\beta^{+}\text{-}\text{arg}}\) & 396 keV (1.2 mm) \\ (range in water) & \\ \(\gamma\)-ray energy, \(E_{\gamma}\) & 909 keV \\ (intensity) & (99.0\%) \\ Gamma factor, \(\Gamma_{1/8\text{-}\text{-}\text{4}\text{-}\text{-}\text{1}}\) & 6.6 R \(\text{\text{\text{\text{\text{\text{\text{\text{\text{\text{\text{\text{\text{ \  
solid hydroxamate resin [23; 24; 25; 39; 40]. Hydroxamate resin separation has emerged as the preferred method following the publication of a standardized method for producing and separating \({}^{89}\)Zr by [PERSON], _et al._[23]. This separation can produce high recovery, radionuclide purity, and effective specific activity (ESA). Our work does not contribute new separation chemistry; rather, the objective for this work was to automate the process that was reported by [PERSON], _et al._[23] based on chemistry that was developed by [PERSON], _et al._[24], [PERSON], _et al._[25], and [PERSON], _et al._[39]. Automation is an important part of isotope production in particular and nuclear medicine in general because automated modules enable production centers to separate large activities of isotopes while still meeting institutional and federal regulations for radiation dose. Automated modules are ubiquitous at many PET centers, where they are typically used in good manufacturing practice (GMP) facilities for synthesizing patient doses of radiopharmaceuticals, such as [\({}^{18}\)F]fluoro-deoxy-glucose ([\({}^{18}\)F]FDG). Automated modules are essential to such processes because these syntheses are for human injection and because the radiolabels for these compounds have short half-lives, high activities, and high gamma factors. Therefore, automated modules are used to make the synthesis clean, reproducible, fast, and safe to production personnel. Although most PET radiometals are still at the research stage, automated separation modules are still useful for many of the same reasons, but principally to minimize dose to personnel. Several groups have published on custom-made automated modules for various radiometals, including \({}^{64}\)Cu [41; 42; 43; 44], \({}^{124}\)I [45], \({}^{99m}\)Tc [46], \({}^{86}\)Y [47], and \({}^{89}\)Zr [48; 49]. In this work, we have designed, built and commissioned a module that has performed the chemical separation of \({}^{89}\)Zr safely and routinely, at activities in excess of 50 mCi, with high radionuclide purity and satisfactory ESA.