On the contribution of the electronuclear reaction to the photonuclear production of Mo-99 and other radioisotopes

Abstract

We used Monte Carlo simulations to estimate contribution of the electronuclear (e−,e-'n) reaction to the one-stage approach photonuclear production of 99Mo. Two types of targets were considered, and it was shown that in case of a thick (2 cm) target, electronuclear yield is two orders of magnitude lower than the photonuclear one. However, in case of a thin target electronuclear yield becomes comparable to the photonuclear or even exceeds it. For a 1 mm thick 100Mo target contribution of the 99Mo yield is about 20%, while for a 0.1 mm thick target this contribution exceeds 70%. We have shown that photonuclear yields of the radioisotopes produced in thin targets could be greatly underestimated if electronuclear reactions are not taken into consideration.