CHARACTERIZATION OF NEUTRON AND GAMMA-RAY EMISSION FROM THICK TARGET BE(P,N) REACTION FOR BORON NEUTRON-CAPTURE THERAPY

Low energy accelerator-based neutron sources have promising potential for use in a clinical treatment of cancer with boron neutron capture t herapy (BNCT) and boron neutron capture synovectomy (BNCS). Such sourc es often utilise a thick target Be(p,n) reaction using incident proton energies from several hundred keV to 1-2 MeV above the reaction thres hold of 2.06 MeV. The resulting neutron and gamma-ray beams require co nsiderable moderation and filtration in order to obtain thermal and ep ithermal neutron fluxes for therapy. The detailed knowledge of neutron and gamma-ray spectra, yield and angular distribution are necessary i n order to design effective moderators and filters to be used for the treatment. Thick and thin beryllium target neutron and gamma-ray spect ra have been investigated in detail using the time-of-flight (TOF) tec hnique, for incident proton energies from above threshold to 4 MeV. Th e results show characteristics of neutron and gamma-ray production of importance for the application of this neutron source for BNCT and BNC S. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.