Bremsstrahlung conversion efficiency and gamma - neutron generation from polypropylene, aluminum, iron, and lead bombarded by 10 MeV electrons

Abstract

An electron beam from the UELR-10-15S2 accelerator (average energy of 9.92 ? 0.48 MeV) was applied to irradiate food and medical items at the Research and Development Center for Radiation Technology, Vietnam Atomic Energy Institute, Vietnam. The materials are under an electron beam window, such as irradiation products, conveyor, magnet and shielding material for the magnet coil, bombarded by electrons and generated X-ray (bremsstrahlung effect). In this article, X-ray conversion efficiency from polypropylene, aluminum, iron, and lead bombarded by an electron beam from the UELR-10-15S2 accelerator is measured by the film dosimeter and simulated by the MCNP4c2 code, and there is good agreement between the calculation and measurement results. The results show that X-ray conversion efficiency is the highest from lead (4.3 %), so the gamma - neutron reaction (Q-value of -6.74 MeV for 207Pb) has to be studied in food and medical items irradiated by a 10 MeV eelectron beam.