Molybdenum (Mo-99) plays a seminal role in the diagnosis of cancer and other diseases. After a few hours, the radioisotope decays to produce Technetium-99m, which is used in the imaging procedures needed to examine millions of people around the world every year. The current fission-based process has many challenges like the aging reactors and the environmental impact of the process. That is why researchers are searching for alternative methods of production. At the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), the European SMART collaboration has now successfully tested the production of Mo-99 with the help of the superconducting linear accelerator ELBE.
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Source: Phys.org