Design of a photoneutron source based on 10MeV electrons of radiotherapy linac

Optimization of a photoneutron source based on 10MeV electron beam using Geant4 Monte Carlo code

“…The usage of Monte Carlo technique requires the reproduction of the photonuclear and electronuclear reactions in great detail, as they are the only reactions converting electromagnetic energy of electrons, positrons, and photons to hadronic energy of mesons, nuclear fragments, and soft neutrons. Reliable Monte Carlo codes such as MCNP [3] and Fluka [4] have been widely used to perform simulation studies to model and optimize the photoneutron target that derives from accelerated electrons [5][6][7][8][9]. In certain references, the obtained results were in good agreement with the experimental tests [6,7].…”

“…This seems to be reasonable if compared to the photoneutron yield of 1.25 Â 10 11 n/mA/s obtained in [9] or 10 11 n/mA/s obtained in [23] using 10 MeV electron beam and heavy water as a c-n converter.…”

“…Photonuclear absorption cross-section model of Geant4 code compared to the IAEA database for9 Be element.…”

A data-based photonuclear reaction model for GEANT4

“…Photon-induced neutron productions play important roles in various industrial and scientific fields which include studies of astrophysical c-process [1][2][3], photon activation analysis [4][5][6][7][8], long-lived radioactive nuclear waste transmutation [9][10][11][12][13], radiography and radiotherapy [14][15][16], and boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) [17][18][19]. For radiation protection, it is important to estimate the production of photoneutrons accurately in radiation therapy [20][21][22][23][24].…”

HALF-LIVES OF 47Sc ISOTOPE FROM PHOTONUCLEAR REACTIONS

“…These data are also important for dosimetry, calculation of the absorbed dose, radiation protection, designing radiation shielding, and activation analyses, including archaeological and forensic science, material analysis, medical science, environmental science, geological science, and meteoroid analysis [7][8][9][10][11]. Also, there are numerous examples of using photonuclear reactions to determine half-lives of certain isotopes [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26].…”