Secondary standardisation of 95mTc

The radionuclide Tc-95m, which has a half-life of 61(2)days and emits a number of gamma-rays, may be used in radiochemical analysis as a yield tracer for the long-lived fission product Tc-99. In this work, we present (i) the production of Tc-95m via an (alpha, 2n) reaction with stable Nb-93 (a method which does not result in the production of any Tc-97m, Tc-98 or Tc-99), (ii) the chemical separation of Tc-95m from niobium via coprecipitation, liquid-liquid extraction and liquid chromatography, and (iii) the secondary standardisation of Tc-95m with high-resolution gamma-ray spectrometry and an ionisation chamber system. Crown Copyright (C) 2003 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.