Proposal of Mo-100(gamma,n)Mo-99 reaction study using Compton backscattering gamma-ray beams at INFN-LNF

The shortage on the world market of 99Mo -> 99mTc “generators” for medical radiodiagnostics, due to the recent and incoming shut-down of several isotope production nuclear reactors, does request the development of new production methods based on other kind of radiation sources, like charged particle accelerators (either fast light ions or electrons). The Thomson backscattering of a Joule-class laser pulse colliding with a ~ 900 MeV electron beam, can be a source of ultra-focused ps pulses of X-rays, in the 5-20 MeV energy range, with much narrower bandwidth and higher spectral density. A possible upgrade to these energies of a 500 keV Thomson Source being commissioned in 2011 at the Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati (LNF) of INFN, is being considered, with an anticipated operation by the year 2013.