Uranium Electrodeposition for Irradiation Targets

Abstract

Direct irradiation on targets inside nuclear research or multiple purpose reactors is a common route to produce 99Mo-99mTc radioisotopes. The electroplating of low enriched uranium over nickel substrate might be a potential alternative to produce targets of 235U. This work makes use of pulse electroplating either to create a nickel substrate and also to electrodeposit UO2(NO3)2 solution diluted in isopropyl alcohol with final concentration of 10 mol/L [U]. The pulse electroplating employed 1 to 3 repetitions of 15 kilocycles, with duty cycle of 80% at 17 Hz at room temperature. The deposit presented an amorphous consistency. The amount of deposited uranium, measured by means of α-counting, was equivalent to around 2000 μg/cm2 after 2700s of pulse electrodeposition. MEV/EDS technique and alpha-spectroscopy revealed that U-deposited material was natural uranium grade substance entrapped inside nickel substrate.