GEANT4 characterization of the neutronic behavior of the active zone of the MEGAPIE spallation target

Lamrabet, Abdesslam; Maghnouj, Abdelmajid; Tajmouati, Jaouad; Bencheikh, Mohamed

doi:10.1016/j.net.2021.05.002

Cited by 5 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 35 publications

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“…The Monte Carlo code GATE (Geant4 Application for Emission Tomography) (Jan et al 2004, 2011 provides VRTs that can be used in absorbed dose calculations to reduce computational processing time, such as the energy cutoff used to limit Bremsstrahlung production and transport, capable of reducing simulation time and keeping global statistical uncertainties below 1% (EL Bakkali et al 2017). Previous works use distance thresholds for the production of secondary particles on PET modeling (Bonifacio et al 2010), improving simulation efficiency in estimates of specific absorbed fractions of photons (Lamrabet et al 2021), optimizing simulations for whole-body planar scintigraphic acquisitions (Costa et al 2017), and cell-based dosimetry (Pinto et al 2020). Previous works (Frezza et al 2020, Pareja García et al 2021 addressed this theme and showed motivating results.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optimized Monte Carlo simulations for voxel-based internal dosimetry

et al. 2023

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Objective: The scientific community has considered internal dosimetry by the Monte Carlo method the gold standard. However, there is a trade-off between simulation processing time and the statistical quality of the results that makes it a challenge to obtain accurate absorbed dose values in some situations, such as dose estimation in organs affected by cross-irradiation or limited computing power. Variance reduction techniques are used to reduce computational processing time without impairing the statistical quality of the results, such as tracking energy cutoff, secondary particle production threshold, and parallelism of different types of emissions from radionuclides. Approach: In this work, GATE Monte Carlo code and its variance reduction techniques were evaluated to calculate S values of organs from the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) report 110 male phantom for the lutetium-177, iodine-131, yttrium-90, and radium-223 radionuclides. The results are compared with the data from the OpenDose collaboration. Main Results: A cutoff of 5 MeV for local electron deposition and 2.0 mm of secondary particle production range resulted in a computational efficiency increase of 7.9 and 1.05 times, respectively. Simulation of ICRP 107 spectra-based source proved to be about 5 times more efficient when compared to a decay simulation using \verb|G4RadioactiveDecay| (Geant4-based radioactive decay processes). TLE (Track Length Estimator) and seTLE (Split Exponential Track Length Estimator) techniques were used to calculate the absorbed dose of photon emissions, resulting in computational efficiency up to 29.4 and 62.5 times higher when compared to traditional simulations, respectively. In particular, the seTLE technique accelerates the simulation time by up to 1426 times, achieving a statistical uncertainty of 10\% in volumes affected by cross-irradiation. Significance: The variance reduction techniques used in this work drastically reduced the simulation time and maintained the statistical quality of the calculated absorbed dose values, proving the feasibility of the use of the Monte Carlo method in internal dosimetry under challenging situations and making it viable for clinical routine or web applications.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optimized Monte Carlo simulations for voxel-based internal dosimetry

et al. 2023

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Computational design and evaluation of a quad-MOSFET device for quality control of therapeutic accelerator-based neutron beams

Jakubowski,

Vohradsky,

Chacon

et al. 2024

Radiation Measurements

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Designing a boron nitride polyethylene composite for shielding neutrons

Vira,

Mone,

Ryan

et al. 2023

APL Materials

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Neutrons are encountered in many different fields, including condensed matter physics, space exploration, nuclear power, and healthcare. Neutrons interacting with a biological target produce secondary charged particles that are damaging to human health. The most effective way to shield neutrons is to slow them to thermal energies and then capture the thermalized neutrons. These factors lead us to consider potential materials solutions for neutron shields that maximize the protection of humans while minimizing the shield mass and adapt well to modern additive manufacturing techniques. Using hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) as a capture medium and high-density polyethylene (HDPE) as a thermalization medium, we aim to design the optimal internal structure of h10BN/HDPE composites by minimizing the effective dose, which is a measure of the estimated radiation damage exposure for a human. Through Monte Carlo simulations in Geant4, we find that the optimal structure reduces the effective dose up to a factor of 72 over aluminum (Al) and up to a factor of 4 over HDPE; this is a significant improvement in shielding effectiveness that could dramatically reduce the radiation exposure of occupational workers.

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GEANT4 characterization of the neutronic behavior of the active zone of the MEGAPIE spallation target

Cited by 5 publications

References 35 publications

Optimized Monte Carlo simulations for voxel-based internal dosimetry

Optimized Monte Carlo simulations for voxel-based internal dosimetry

Computational design and evaluation of a quad-MOSFET device for quality control of therapeutic accelerator-based neutron beams

Designing a boron nitride polyethylene composite for shielding neutrons

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