Publisher's Note: Design of an X-band electron linear accelerator dedicated to decentralized 99Mo/99mTc supply: From beam energy selection to yield estimation (vol 20, 104701, 2017)

The most frequently used radionuclide in diagnostic nuclear medicine, Tc-99m, is generally obtained by the decay of its parent radionuclide, Mo-99. Recently, concerns have been raised over shortages of Mo-99/Tc-99m, owing to aging of the research reactors which have been supplying practically all of the global demand for Mo-99 in a centralized fashion. In an effort to prevent such Mo-99/Tc-99m supply disruption and, furthermore, to ameliorate the underlying instability of the centralized Mo-99/Tc-99m supply chain, we designed an X-band electron linear accelerator which can be distributed over multiple regions, whereby Mo-99/Tc-99m can be supplied with improved accessibility. The electron beam energy was designed to be 35 MeV, at which an average beam power of 9.1 kW was calculated by the following beam dynamics analysis. Subsequent radioactivity modeling suggests that 11 of the designed electron linear accelerators can realize self-sufficiency of Mo-99/Tc-99m in Japan.