Electorolytically purified manganese metal was used as target material for the production of
56Mn by (n, γ) reaction. The impurities were first roughly determined by nondestructively measuring their radioactivities after irradiation, and then precisely by combining chemical separation with activation analysis. Antimony, chromium, scandium and europium were found present, to the extent of a few ppm or lower.
In addition,
54Mn produced by
55Mn(n, 2n)
54Mn reaction with fast neutrons was also detected. In order to estimate the production rate of this
54Mn, the activation cross section of this nuclear reaction was estimaied from the activities of 54Mn in a manganese target irradiated in one of the hollow fuel elements of JRR-2. It was estimated to be 0.19mb which roughly agreed with the value of 0.16mb obtained by Roy et al. (1960).
Radiochemical impurities in the
56Mn produced in the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute were estimated from the values obtained above and the irradiation conditions used for the production. It was found that the product is 99.999% radiochemically pure
56Mn.
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