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Reimagining nuclear materials for the future of medicine
Nuclear medicine has come a long way since Henri Becquerel first observed the penetrating energy of radioactive materials in 1896. Today, technetium-99m alone is used in more than 40 million diagnostic procedures every year—from cardiovascular imaging and bone scans to cancer detection—making it the undisputed workhorse of nuclear medicine. That single statistic tells you something important: An enormous portion of modern diagnostic medicine rests on a surprisingly narrow foundation, one built around a small number of aging research reactors that were never originally designed for continuous isotope production.
Takayuki Terai, Satorn Tanaka, Yoichi Takahashi
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 8 | Number 2 | September 1985 | Pages 2143-2148
Blanket and Process Engineering | Proceedings of the Second National Topical Meeting on Tritium Technology in Fission, Fusion and Isotopic Applications (Dayton, Ohio, April 30 to May 2, 1985) | doi.org/10.13182/FST85-A24600
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In-situ tritium release behavior from Li2O powder has been investigated under neutron irradiation at high temperatures. It was found that the chemical form of the released tritium depended strongly on the experimental conditions such as pre-treatment (dehumidification) of the sample and the H2 addition to the sweep gas of helium. Water-soluble component was observed to be a main species from the sample pre-dried in N2 stream at 800°C for 3 days, while water-insoluble component had fairly large proportion on the sample pre-dried for 5 days. In the case of He-4%H2 sweep gas, more than 90% of released tritium was water-insoluble even for the sample pre-dried for 3 days. Tritium recovery rate was also accelerated by H2 addition. These experimental results showed that the oxygen activity of the experimental system essentially affected to tritium release behavior from Li2O sample.