ON CRITICAL PARAMETERS OF PHOTONUCLEAR ISOTOPE PRODUCTION

Abstract

Analytical model for description of isotope generation in a thick production target exposed to no uniform flux of high-energy bremsstrahlung radiation is developed. A set of principal process parameters determinative the yield of a product isotope and distribution of its specific activity has been established. It is shown, that as those parameters may be the yield of the product isotope in a thin foil overlapping the photon flux, normalized to the mass thickness of the foil (a coefficient of photonuclear conversion), and also the standard radial deviation of the flux density of the above-threshold photons at the target as well as the most probable angle of their escape from a bremsstrahlung converter. The methods for measuring those parameters are proposed. Testing of the model was conducted using the 100Мо(g,n)99Mo reaction by comparing the results obtained from the model consideration with the data of experimental study and computer simulation. The proposed approach enables the optimization of photonuclear technology as respects to target dimensions and activation regime.