Investigation of efficient 131I production from natural uranium at Tehran research reactor

Iodine-131, which has a half-life of 8.05 days, is the one of the most widely used radionuclides in medical diagnosis and treats some diseases of thyroid gland. Optimization of 131I production in Tehran research reactor (TRR) was studied by two different methods. Primarily, standard nuclear codes such as ORIGEN, WIMS and CITATION were applied and then analytical solutions technique was followed. Calculated results and experimental works in the bench scale indicate that, by irradiation of 100 g natural Uranium (UO2) for 100 h at 3.5 × 1013 (n’s/cm2 s) thermal neutron flux in the TRR, one can produce about 5 Ci of 131I for medical purposes, on the other hand can produce very useful radionuclides like 99Mo and 133Xe in one batch irradiation in the unique production line.