History and Actual State of Non-HEU Fission-Based Mo-99 Production with Low-Performance Research Reactors

Fifty years ago, one of the worldwide first industrial production processes to produce fission-Mo-99 for medical use had been started at ZfK Rossendorf (now: HZDR, Germany). On the occasion of this anniversary, it is worth to mention that this original process (called LITEMOL now) together with its target concept used at that time can still be applied. LITEMOL can be adapted very easily to various research reactors and applied at each site, which maybe still of interest for very small-scale producers. Besides this original process, two further and actually proven processes are suitable as well and recommended for small-scale LEU fission Mo-99 production also. They are known under the names KSA/KSS COMPACT and ROMOL LITE and will be described below