The reporter learned on October 25 that the Institute of Nuclear Physics and Chemistry of China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) obtained a molybdenum-100 isotope with a kilogram abundance of 99% through independent research and development, which changed the long-term situation that molybdenum isotopes were completely dependent on imports. This is the first time that China has realized the independent supply of key materials for molybdenum isotopes, and has become one of the very few countries in the world that can obtain molybdenum isotopes in batches.

Molybdenum (Mo) isotopes have a wide range of applications in nuclear medicine, basic physics research, advanced nuclear fuels and other fields.

In the field of nuclear medicine, the abundant molybdenum-98 and molybdenum-100 isotopes are the precursors for the production of the radioisotope molybdenum-99, which further decays to form technetium-99m, which is currently the most widely used radionuclide for diagnostic use in nuclear medicine.

In the field of fundamental physics, the application of high-abundance molybdenum-100 isotopes to neutrino-free β decay experiments, which is an important frontier topic in international particle physics and nuclear physics research, is of great significance for exploring the basic properties of neutrinos and revealing the evolution process of the universe.

In the field of advanced nuclear fuel research, depleted molybdenum-95 has a melting point 760°C higher than that of zirconium, a mainstream nuclear fuel cladding material, which can make nuclear fuel assemblies more resistant to high temperatures, greatly improve the safety performance of nuclear fuel assemblies, and provide an important guarantee for the safe and green development of nuclear power industry.