A neutron source for the study of biological objects formed from superficially touching cones made of borated spheroplastics

Abstract

At the Prometheus medical accelerator with a proton beam energy of 225 MeV, a source of fast and epithermal neutrons was constructed and measurements of neutron dose profiles at the output of the neutron channel were carried out using the BDMN-100 detector. A heavy NaI target was used to produce fast neutrons. Together with the research laboratory of the Central Laboratory of Avangard JSC, a new protective material against neutrons called wikineutron was developed, with a different percentage of 10B. This new material has been studied many times at the Prometheus proton accelerator and the Pakhra electron accelerator. Based on the developed new protective materials against neutrons, a shadow protection was formed, made in the form of surface contacting cones, forming a channel of fast and epithermal neutrons. Fast neutrons can be used for remote therapy. Also, a neutron beam can be used to study biological objects and cells. It is also possible to use a neutron source from the Prometheus accelerator for the treatment of superficial tumors. The developed neutron channel can be used for medical work on the creation of new radiopharmaceuticals containing boron and other highly absorbing elements. The developed neutron source is a compact low-power source of therapeutic neutrons, which can be used for the treatment of superficial types of cancer. The main goal of the work was: the formation, based on the developed neutron-absorbing materials, of a neutron channel, which has a simple design and can be used for boron-neutron capture therapy and nadepithermal therapy; creation on the neutron channel of a beam of epithermal neutrons and supra-epithermal neutrons to assess the effectiveness of the use of radiopharmaceuticals.The developed neutron-absorbing materials made it possible to create a neutron channel of epithermal neutrons and supra-epithermal neutrons for therapy and the development of gold-based radiosensitizers.