SU‐F‐T‐183: Design of a Beam Shaping Assembly of a Compact DD‐Based Boron Neutron Capture Therapy System

Abstract

Purpose:To design a beam shaping assembly (BSA) to shape the 2.45‐MeV neutrons produced by a deuterium‐deuterium (DD) neutron generator and to optimize the beam output for boron neutron capture therapy of brain tumorsMethods:MCNP is used for this simulation study. The simulation model consists of a neutron surface source that resembles an actual DD source and is surrounded by a BSA. The neutron source emits 2.45‐MeV neutrons isotropically. The BSA is composed of a moderator, reflector, collimator and filter. Various types of materials and geometries are tested for each component to optimize the neutron output. Neutron characteristics are measured with an 2×2×2‐cm3 air‐equivalent cylinder at the beam exit. The ideal BSA is determined by evaluating the in‐air parameters, which include epithermal neutron per source neutron, fast neutron dose per epithermal neutron, and photon dose per epithermal neutron. The parameter values are compared to those recommended by the IAEA.Results:The ideal materials for reflector and thermal neutron filter were lead and cadmium, respectively. The thickness for reflector was 43 cm and for filter was 0.5 mm. At present, the best‐performing moderator has 25 cm of AlF3 and 5 cm of MgF2. This layout creates a neutron spectrum that has a peak at approximately 10 keV and produces 1.35E‐4 epithermal neutrons per source neutron per cm2. Additional neutron characteristics, fast neutrons per epithermal neutron and photon per epithermal neutron, are still under investigation.Conclusion:Working is ongoing to optimize the final layout of the BSA. The neutron spectrum at the beam exit window of the final configuration will have the maximum number of epithermal neutrons and limited photon and fast neutron contaminations within the recommended values by IAEA. Future studies will also include phantom experiments to validate the simulation results.