Monte Carlo simulation of the possibility of cobalt-60 production in Tehran research reactor

60Co is used as an important industrial radioactive source in the sterilization of food and medical equipment. kCi sources can mainly be used for laboratory research, however, there are few industrial centers that use these sources for irradiating agricultural products. Hence, in this study, the potential of producing tens of kCi of 60Co sources in Tehran research reactor has been investigated using MCNPX code. Different assemblies including 59Co rods were modeled by computational code. In addition, the loading of the 59Co rod assembly in different arrangements of the Tehran research reactor core was investigated and the 59Co production yield was calculated in each of the modeled cases. The results of this study show that by optimizing the 59Co rod assembly in a 27-fuel 1401 year core arrangement of the Tehran Research Reactor, it is possible to achieve about 40 kCi of 60Co product after 3 years of irradiation. The use of beryllium reflector with optimized geometry can reduce the negative reactivity caused by the loading of 59Co assembly. Also, loading the cobalt-59 assembly in the periphery of the equilibrium core of the Tehran research reactor can lead to the production of about 23 kCi of cobalt-60.