Radioisotope production apparatus and procedures in nuclear reactor instrumentation tubes

摘要

A radioisotope production process, the process comprising; inserting at least one irradiation target (250) into a sleeve (260) of a tube subsystem, the sleeve being inserted into an instrumentation tube (50) of a nuclear reactor (10), the instrumentation tube extending into the reactor and having an opening (51) accessible from the outside of the reactor, to expose the irradiation target to the neutron flux present in the nuclear reactor when it operates, the irradiation target being substantially converted into a radioisotope when exposed to a neutron flux present in the nuclear reactor, the sleeve having a substantially constant inside diameter, and the tube system further including at least one clamp (266) shaped to engage the sleeve and a variable inside surface of the instrumentation tube; and extracting the irradiation target and produced radioisotopes from the instrumentation tube.