Design and performance of an automated radionuclide separator: Its application on the determination of 99Tc in groundwater

• Design and performance of an automated radionuclide separator for 99Tc are presented.
• A control software developed in the LabView is given in detail.
• An automated radiochemical method for separating 99Tc is presented.
• The automated separator is validated by the purification of 99mTc tracer solution.

A modular automated radionuclide separator for 99Tc (MARS Tc-99) has been developed for the rapid and reproducible separation of technetium in groundwater samples. The control software of MARS Tc-99 was developed in the LabView programming language. An automated radiochemical method for separating 99Tc was developed and validated by the purification of 99mTc tracer solution eluted from a commercial 99Mo/99mTc generator. The chemical recovery and analytical time for this radiochemical method were found to be 96±2% and 81 min, respectively.