Engineering Design of a Spallation Reaction-Based Neutron Generator for Boron Neutron Capture Therapy

摘要

An engineering design of an epithermal neutron generator for boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) has been completed, which utilizes the spallation reaction by protons accelerated to 50 MeV. The critical issues for realization of the neutron generator are the mechanical structure of a target with cooling capability and its integrity under operating conditions with powers as high as 50MeVx300μA. The integrity of a target structure design has been confirmed by thermal and stress analyses with a finite element method code ANSYS. Moreover, a target replacement strategy is also studied based on a radioactivity evaluation performed by the IRACM code system. In addition to the target structure design, the neutronics design has been optimized with the Monte Carlo code MCNPX. A high epithermal neutron flux of 1.8 x10~9 cm~(-2)·s~(-1) has been achieved at the aperture of the collimator, which allows a RBE dose of over 30 Gy-eq to be delivered to a brain tumor within 5.9 cm in phantom depth for a therapeutic time of 31 min.