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by atomicalchemy 2635 days ago
A radiochemist will help me determine the the size requirements of the hot cells for the final facility design. I understand the chemistry needed to separate out some of the most commonly used radioisotopes, but I don't have a sense of scale other than the processes being "bench top" scale.

Additionally, he or she (and with a few colleagues) will develop all of the processing procedures for the myriad isotopes that the facility will produce. A lot of what's publicly available for processing and purification has been optimized and is trade secret.

Another interesting problem is how to turn more of your waste into wealth? Currently, Mo-99 (the radioisotope with the largest market share) is primarily produced by extracting the Mo-99 from fission products. Mo-99 is produced in 7% of fissions. Well, if I process out the Mo-99, how many times and how many different processes on that waste can I perform to extract out other radioisotopes before I have to dispose of it?

Early on I'll need a radiochemist with a certain level of hands-on experience because their work will directly tie into the regulatory process, but as I raise more money and build my team, I'm certain that a computation chemist can help answer that last question which could be a huge innovation.