Quality control and quality assurance procedures at the THOR BNCT facility

Abstract

Various quality control (QC) and quality assurance (QA) procedures of the boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) beam at the Tsing Hua Open-pool Reactor (THOR) are established to ensure beam availability and quality. The QC/QA methods mainly employ foil activation and paired ionization chambers, respectively, for beam intensity check and dose assessment. Beam intensity is monitored on-line by using three dead-time corrected fission chambers. In addition to the periodic QC/QA activities regarding beam quality and the monitoring system, the quick QC/QA performed in an all-in-one phantom will be executed less than 70 min before the clinical treatment to guarantee beam quality. The QC/QA procedures have been gradually established and the actual performance satisfied the preset criteria defined for the BNCT facility at THOR.