Experimental characterization of the neutron spectra generated by a high-energy clinical LINAC

The production of unwanted neutrons by electron linear accelerators (LINACs) has attracted a special attention since the early 50s. The renewed interest in this topic during the last years is due mainly to the increased use of such machines in radiotherapy. Specially, in most of developing countries...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section A, Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment, 2011-02, Vol.629 (1), p.329-336
Main Authors: Amgarou, K., Lacoste, V., Martin, A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Activation
Detectors
Equivalence
Foils
Integrals
Linear accelerators
Medical LINAC
Neutron spectra
Neutron spectrometry
Physics
Spectrometers
Unwanted radiation
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The production of unwanted neutrons by electron linear accelerators (LINACs) has attracted a special attention since the early 50s. The renewed interest in this topic during the last years is due mainly to the increased use of such machines in radiotherapy. Specially, in most of developing countries where many old teletherapy irradiators, based on 60Co and 137Cs radioactive sources, are being replaced with new LINAC units. The main objective of this work is to report the results of an experimental characterization of the neutron spectra generated by a high-energy clinical LINAC. Measurements were carried out, considering four irradiation configurations, by means of our recently developed passive Bonner sphere spectrometer (BSS) using pure gold activation foils as central detectors. This system offers the possibility to measure neutrons over a wide energy range (from thermal up to a few MeV) at pulsed, intense and complex mixed n–γ fields. A two-step unfolding method that combines the NUBAY and MAXED codes was applied to derive the final neutron spectra as well as their associated integral quantities (in terms of total neutron fluence and ambient dose equivalent rates) and fluence-averaged energies.
ISSN:0168-9002
1872-9576
DOI:10.1016/j.nima.2010.11.101