Future development of global molybdenum-99 production and saving of atmospheric radioxenon emissions by using nuclear fusion-based approaches

Technetium-99m, the decay product of molybdenum-99, is the most used medical isotope in diagnostic imaging. The future disruptions of molybdenum-99 supply, due to the final shut down of some old producing reactors, has led some current global supplies to plan the expansion of their production capacity. While other countries are developing own production facilities to supply their domestic demand. The global increase of molybdenum-99 production in the coming years could increase by about five times the current demand, with about the 50 percent of additional production in North America. Xenon radionuclides are an inevitable by-product of the nuclear plants production, and their periodically release into the atmosphere, contribute to the background that is also revealed by the IMS stations of the CBTO treaty. In this framework, the development of new technologies, posing no risk in relation to nuclear proliferation and do not result in emissions of radioxenon, could mitigate the issues related to the forecast increase of molybdenum-99 production worldwide. In Italy, an alternative 99Mo production project, the project ENEA Sorgentina, based on the irradiation of molybdenum by neutrons produced by a deuterium-tritium nuclear fusion process, is under development. This facility will not release radioxenon into the atmosphere, so it will not affect the background value in the atmosphere in Southern Europe.