Evaluation of Radioisotope Production Capabilities in MYRRHA

The purpose of this work is to demonstrate what are the radioisotope production capabilities of MYRRHA, thought as the heir of the BR2, one of the most powerful research reactors in Europe. At SCKCEN where the MYRRHA project is under design, the production of 99Mo by fission of 235U and of 227Ac and 228Th by thermal neutron capture of 226Ra has already been
evaluated showing good results. Since MYRRHA is a fast spectrum reactor, moderation has to be provided to neutrons in order to make these reactions occur. The IPS are inserted in the periphery of the core, where it is easier to thermalize neutrons, and are provided of a system with circulating water for both moderating and cooling; Beryllium baskets are foreseen for both hosting the targets inside the IPS and moderating the incoming neutrons. The configurations for the productions just mentioned are used in this work for the production of several radioisotope. It is investigated the possibility of: extracting 89Sr, 90Sr (/90Y), 95Zr, 131I, 133Xe and 140Ba (/140La) from the same UAlx plate used for Mo production; producing by (n,) reactions 32P, 79Kr, 89Sr, 90Y, 140La, 153Sm, 177Lu, 188W(/188Re), 192Ir and 203Hg, which are already produced in the BR2, and 131I, from two targets of Tellurium in natural and oxide form, and 191Os/191mIr; performing (n,), (n,n0) and (n,p) fast reactions in the inner IPS for the production of 24Na, 32P, 89Sr, 90Y, 117mSn and 153Sm. In order to estimate the produced activities, the core is modelled in MCNP and the simulations are run in ALEPH2, a Monte-Carlo Burn-up Code developed by SCKCEN itself. The obtained results, not all positive, show on the whole that the designed irradiation rigs work well for the production of these mentioned radionuclide too.