Challenges of Extracting and Purifying Fission-Produced Molybdenum-99

Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) has produced limited quantities of fission-produced molybdenum-99 ~%lo) within industry purity specifications using the Cintichem production process. The chemical extraction and purification of `%lo was petiormed using the Hot Cell Facility (HCF) located at Technical Area-V. To thoroughly understand the production process, two series of tests were designed, the first was a series of cold tests using 20 g samples of depleted or low irradiated uranium dioxide powder and the second series was conducted using irradiated targets. In addition, radiation effects tests were petiormed at the SNL Gamma Irradiation Facility (GIF) on chemicals and hardware used in the processing to evaluate the degradation due to the high radiation field expected during the chemical separation. Unique production hardware, fixtures and tools were developed for remote processing of irradiated targets at the HCF