Beam shaping assembly study for BNCT facility based on a 2.5 MeV proton accelerator on Li target

Abstract

A new study for a boron neutron capture therapy irradiation facility, based on a 2.5 MeV proton accelerator on a thick Li target as neutron converter, is presented here. The beam shaping assembly (BSA) modeling has been performed with the use of the MCNP5 Monte Carlo code. The fast (i.e., > 10 keV) neutron component yielded by the 7 Li(p,n) 7 Be reaction is slowed down through TiF 3 neutron spectrum shifter, while to obtain a high-quality epithermal neutron beam at the beam port exit additional layers for thermal neutrons removal and shielding of gamma rays were used. Moreover, 60 Ni and Ti 6 Al 14 V were selected to filter out and further remove the residual fast neutron component, while cadmium was chosen as thermal neutrons absorber, and bismuth was selected for gamma rays shielding. The therapeutic effectiveness of the proposed BSA was evaluated by performing a set of dose-equivalent distribution calculations in a standard Snyder head phantom. The simulation results show that the proposed BSA modeling meets all the recommended by IAEA criteria and provides one possible technical choice for an accelerator-based BNCT irradiation facility in a hospital environment.

Quantification of Boron Compound Concentration for BNCT Using Positron Emission Tomography

“…At HISPANoS, fast, epithermal, and thermal neutrons can be delivered through different nuclear reactions [ 2 , 11 , 12 ]. In the case of the epithermal beams of interest in this work, the proton beam and beam-shaping assembly (BSA) configurations from Fantidis et al [ 13 ] have been considered: a proton beam of 2.5 MeV, in our case, with a current of 10 µA would hit a water-cooled thick lithium target, producing, in the absence of the BSA, ~3·10 7 n/cm 2 /s at 10 cm. This is about 30 times lower a value than the reference value of 10 9 n/cm 2 /s considered by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) [ 14 ], hence not sufficient for clinical BNCT but enough for tests and some specific cases, with the particular feature that the neutron beam is adjacent to both the radiopharmacy laboratory and the PET scanner.…”

Plant-Based Calcium Fructoborate as Boron-Carrying Nanoparticles for Neutron Cancer Therapy

“…Based on IAEA standard modeling configuration for neutron beams [35] the α-particles and the 7 Li ions can destroy cells in mitosis. The challenge which may exist is to promote from experimental animal studies to clinical biodistribution studies, a step which has yet to be taken from experiment to clinical trials [36][37][38][39][40].…”

The new design and validation of an epithermal neutron flux detector using 71Ga(n,γ)72Ga reaction for BNCT

“…However, in recent years, accelerator-based neutron beams are being developed with great enthusiasm worldwide to realize in-hospital BNCT treatment facilities. Therefore, in this work, a reactorbased BNCT neutron beam [14] and accelerator-based BNCT neutron beams using D-D [15], D-T [16] and p- 7 Li [17] reactions are employed to validate the performance of the designed epithermal neutron flux detector. The spectra of the employed BNCT neutron beams are shown in figure 2.…”