Neutron beams implemented at nuclear research reactors for BNCT

Abstract

A: This paper presents a survey of neutron beams which were or are in use at 56 Nuclear Research Reactors (NRRs) in order to be used for BNCT, either for treatment or research purposes in aspects of various combinations of materials that were used in their Beam Shaping Assembly (BSA) design, use of fission converters and optimized beam parameters. All our knowledge about BNCT is indebted to researches that have been done in NRRs. The results of about 60 years research in BNCT and also the successes of this method in medical treatment of tumors show that, for the development of BNCT as a routine cancer therapy method, hospital-based neutron sources are needed. Achieving a physical data collection on BNCT neutron beams based on NRRs will be helpful for beam designers in developing a non-reactor based neutron beam. K: Instrumentation for neutron sources; Instrumentation for particle-beam therapy 1Corresponding author.

Optimization of double layered beam shaping assembly using genetic algorithm

“…Collimators and fast and thermal filter are composed of the material with the maximum thickness of 15 cm and 39.04 cm, respectively. Filter m1 t1 m2 t2 m3 t3 m4 t4 m5 t5 m6 m7 t7 m8 t8 1 Al 10 Al2O3 40 Pb 40 Ni 10 Ni 5 FeC FeC+LiF 22 Cd 1 2 Al 20 LiF 30 Pb 30 C 20 Ni 10 Ti FeC+LiF 22 B4C 2 3 Al 30 AlF3 20 Pb 20 FeC 30 Ni 15 C FeC+LiF 22 Li 3 4 Al 10 B 4 Where the t = thickness of material, m = type of material, t1, t2, t3, t4, t5, t7in cm and t8 = mm.…”

“…Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT) is a method for cancer therapy which irradiates cancer cells previously injected with boron 10 B. Interaction of a thermal neutron and a 10 B nucleus will form a compound nucleus 11 B. The compound nucleus will subsequently decay, radiating gamma and alpha particles.…”

“…A part of the cyclotron that is yet to be developed is doublelayered BSA. The BSA is a system that transforms fast neutrons into epithermal neutrons and concurrently reduce contaminants accompanying the beams [9,10]. The design of BSA currently being used is in the form of double and multilayer configuration [2].…”

Gamma Radiography Testing of Collimators for Boron Neutron Capture Therapy

“…Beam shaping assemblies are designed to moderate the fast neutron which comes out from neutron source (Fantidis and Nicolaou 2018). Generally, they consist of a moderator, reflector, thermal neutron filter, gamma filter, and collimator (Bavarnegin et al 2017). A neutron collimator will collimate the neutrons produced from the source.…”

Rockwell Hardness Testing of Pure Nickel Collimators for BNCT Application

“…Based on the International Atomic Energy Agency's criteria, the minimum epithermal flux for BNCT is 10 9 epithermal neutrons cm -2 s -1 (International Atomic Energy Agency 2001). BNCT collimators consist of a reflector, moderator, collimator, shielding, and filter (Hassanein et al 2018;Bavarnegin et al 2017). Mujiyono et al (2018) manufactured a BNCT collimator from nickel using centrifugal casting.…”