Specifications and qualification of uranium/aluminum alloy plate target for the production of fission molybdenum-99

In all probability, the same criteria applied to evaluate the safety of the reactor fuel shall be used to evaluate the safety of the targets used for the production of fission molybdenum-99. Thus, neutronic and thermal hydraulics considerations will dictate the maximum power of the targets, their uranium content, and the uniformity requirements for their loading. Radiography technique is capable of characterizing both meat location and density. Specifically, target plates that meet fuel density specifications can be irradiated with little risk of power peaking and hot spots. An adequate characterization and qualification of target plate cladding is also critical, because cladding breaches will contaminate the reactor coolant. Bend testing is a dependable way of testing bond strength while Ultrasonic Testing (UT) examinations qualify both bonding homogeneity and minimum thickness of that cladding. The bonding quality is inspected by means of a blister test. Lastly, optical microscopy is applied for clad thickness, which further supports the veracity of the UT characterization method. Natural U/Al alloy plate targets have been safely irradiated in the core of Pakistan Research Reactor-1.