Aqueous Homogeneous Reactor - The ARGUS Reactor

The ARGUS Reactor

Environmentally friendly and economically competitive techniques of radioactive isotope production are being developed at the Kurchatov Institute in Russia, on the base of the ARGUS reactor - an aqueous homogeneous minireactor. This reactor, with 20 kW thermal output power, has been in operation since 1981 and has shown high indices of efficiency and safety. A feasibility study to develop techniques for strontium-89 and molybdenum-99 production, in this reactor are currently underway. An analysis of the isotopes produced, performed at the National Institute of Radioactive Elements in Belgium has shown that the Mo-99 samples produced at ARGUS are characterized by an extreme radiochemical purity, i.e. the impurity content in them is lower than the allowable limits by 2–4 orders of magnitude. Among the radioactive medicial isotopes, Mo-99 and Sr-89 are widespread. The first one is a raw material for production of technetium-99m, a radiopharmaceutical preparation for an early diagnostics of a number of diseases- oncological, cardiological and, urological ones among others. More than 6 million people are examined with this isotope each year in Europe.