Options for UK Technetium-99m Production using Accelerators

Recent and ongoing shortages in reactor-based supplies of molybdenum-99 for hospital production of the important medical radioisotope Technetium-99m have prompted the re-examination of the alternative production methods using conventional and laser-based particle accelerators. At present the UK has no domestic source of molybdenum-99 and relies exclusively on overseas supply; the National Health Service, with professional partners, is therefore examining the options for domestic production of molybdenum-99 and/or technetium-99m to increase security of supply. In this paper we review the acceleratorbased methods from a UK perspective, and outline the most promising methods for short- and medium-term supply, which include low-energy cyclotron and photonuclear reaction routes using enriched Molybdenum-100 targets.