Application of an ultraminiature thermal neutron monitor for irradiation field study of accelerator-based neutron capture therapy

摘要

Phantom experiments to evaluate thermal neutron flux distribution were performed using the Scintillator with Optical Fiber (SOF) detector, which was developed as a thermal neutron monitor during boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) irradiation. Compared with the gold wire activation method and Monte Carlo N-particle (MCNP) calculations, it was confirmed that the SOF detector is capable of measuring thermal neutron flux as low as 10⁵ n/cm²/s with sufficient accuracy. The SOF detector will be useful for phantom experiments with BNCT neutron fields from low-current accelerator-based neutron sources.