Molybdenum is considered as one of the substitutes for zirconium in making fuel cladding for safe reactor designs. The isotopically modified molybdenum (IMM) should be used instead of natural molybdenum to achieve higher energy efficiency, reduce uranium consumption, and mitigate the impact on the nuclear fuel cycle. This task can be fulfilled by using the same technology of gas centrifugation for uranium enrichment to remove the isotopes in natural molybdenum with larger thermal neutron absorption cross sections. Optimized double-cascade separation schemes consisting of the Q-cascade model are employed for studying massive production of IMM and evaluating the economic feasibility of production. A simple formula is derived to be able to assess the cost per kilogram of IMM, taking into account various cost-affecting factors. The results demonstrate that it is feasible to produce massively the IMM with a total thermal neutron absorption cross section equivalent to that of zirconium.

钼被认为是锆的替代品之一，用于制造安全反应堆设计的燃料包壳。应使用同位素改性钼（IMM）代替天然钼，以实现更高的能源效率，减少铀消耗，并减轻对核燃料循环的影响。这一任务可以通过使用与浓缩铀相同的气体离心技术去除具有较大热中子吸收截面的天然钼中的同位素来完成。采用由Q-cascade模型组成的优化双级联分离方案，用于研究IMM的大规模生产和评估生产的经济可行性。推导出一个简单的公式来评估每公斤 IMM 的成本，同时考虑到各种影响成本的因素。