Experimental results of an accelerator-driven neutron activator for medical radioisotope production

In the framework of the EC funded INBARCA project (Innovative Nanosphere Brachytherapy with Adiabatic Resonance Crossing using Accelerators) a compact, accelerator driven neutron activator has been designed and constructed, with the aim of efficiently utilising ion-beam generated neutrons for the production of radioactive nanoparticles for brachytherapy. The design is based on a modified version of the Adiabatic Resonance Crossing concept, first proposed by C. Rubbia of CERN. The neutron activator has been tested in two experimental configurations, with and without a central lead block. The activation performance on different materials was quantified by ¿-spectrometry. Monte Carlo simulations accompanied all experimental runs, and neutron unfolding techniques were used to derive the experimental neutron spectrum. This paper compares the simulated and the unfolded neutron spectra thus obtained, as well as the experimental and simulated activation results for pure Au, Ag, Mo, Ni, Ho and Re foils as well as for Re and Ho nanoparticles. An overall satisfactory agreement between experiments and Monte Carlo simulations was found. Experimental findings show that the best yields are obtained when using an all-graphite configuration, highlighting the importance of optimising the neutron moderation dynamics and neutron confinement for the activation of isotopes of interest. The results confirm that the all-graphite activator configuration is preferable for the activation of nanoparticles for brachytherapy applications. Keywords: neutron activation, neutron spectrum, radioisotope production, cyclotron, MCNPX, FLUKA

BURGIO N.;  MACIOCCO L.;  ABBAS Kamel;  SIMONELLI Federica;  SANTAGATA A;  BUONO S.;  GIBSON Peter;  COTOGNO Giulio;  CYDZIK Izabela;  HOLZWARTH Uwe;  TAGZIRIA Hamid;  MERCURIO Giovanni; 

2011-11-04

IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC

JRC60723

0018-9499,   

https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC60723,   

10.1109/TNS.2011.2112377,