Niowave’s Domestic Production of Mo-99 from LEU without a Nuclear Reactor

Niowave, Inc.Lansing MI

May 2018Presented at the Mo-99 Stakeholders Meeting

Washington, DC

This document contains Niowave Proprietary Data. Not for release without prior written permission from Niowave.

Outline

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• Superconducting Linacs and Their Applications• Mo-99 Production from LEU

– Uranium Target Assembly– Uranium Targets – Isotope Separation (LMC and UREX)– Uranium Recycling

• Future Steps

Niowave’s Commercial Markets

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Sterilization & Advanced ManufacturingEliminate dirty bomb material

Medical & Industrial RadioisotopesDomestic supply without nuclear reactor or highly-enriched uranium

Nuclear Energy Advanced TechnologiesDomestic fast neutron irradiation and advanced reactor development

< 9 MeV

> 9 MeV

9 MeV

Supe

rcon

duct

ing

Elec

tron

Lina

cs

Radiography & Active InterrogationCargo inspection for contraband and shielded nuclear bombs

> 9 MeV

Superconducting Linac Facility

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Turn-key Systems • Superconducting Linac• Helium Cryoplant• Microwave Power• End Station• Licensing

End Stations

Beam Energy 1-40 MeV

Average Beam Power 10-100 kWDuty Cycle 10-100%Closed-loop Cooling Capacity

40-110 W @ 4 K

Isotope Production Flowchart

• 10 kg LEU will be processed each week• 10 kCi of Mo-99 per week

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LEUtargets

Target FabricationLEU

LEU

targetsSuperconducting Electron Linac

Rad

ioch

emis

try

Mo-99I-131Xe-133FF

Waste

LEU

Subcritical Assembly

(UTA)

UTA Characterization

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Cf-252 port

He-3 sphere

Li-6 panel (silverside)

UTA

HPGe

NaI

Stilbene scintillator (UMich)

Instrument rod (i.e. gold foil activation

Volatile gas extraction module

NU LEU

Neutron source coupler

• Commissioning and characterization of UTA and instrumentation system• Validate computer models and simulations

UTA Driven by a Linac

Successfully operational fully coupled system:– Superconducting linac coupled to UTA– Neutron production verified and validated– Mo-99 and other FF are produced

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UTA

Two-pass Accelerator UTA

X-ray converter (second end station)

LEU Acquisition and Target Preparation

Natural uranium– 345 kgU (metal and oxide) at

Niowave

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Low Enriched Uranium (<20 wt% 235U)– 1.8 kgU oxide at Niowave– 18 kgU metal purchased from Y-12/NNSA

LEU pellets LEU pellets

Aluminum cladding

NU pellets

Mo-99 Extraction

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• Working with ANL since 2015:– Training Niowave’s staff – Helping to establish a radiochemistry facility at Niowave– Assisting in improving the efficiency of separation and scaling up the processes

Training at ANL facility

Performing LMC at Niowave facility

Uranium Recovery and Target Preparation

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• Working with Y-12 since 2017:– UREX– Mechanical pressing of uranium oxide powder

Pellet pressing

Uranium denitration

Uranium oxide powder

Pressed pellets are loaded for re-irradiation

Na2MoO4 and Xe samples

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Mo-99739 keV

Mo-99778 keV

Tc-99m141 keV

Mo-99181 keV Mo-99

366 keV

Xe-1382016 keV

Xe-1381768 keV

Xe-135250 keV

Xe-138258 keV

Kr-882196 keV

Kr-882392 keV

Na2MoO4 is packaged for shipment

Xe-135m527 keV

Future Steps

• Niowave will continue work with Y-12 and ANL to improve and scale up our processes

• In the next 2 years we will be producing:– 10 Ci per week of Mo-99 and Xe-133– 10 Ci of other beta emitting fission fragments

• Revenue from therapeutic beta emitters:– Coproduced during uranium fission– Will fund scale up to 10 kCi/week

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