Neutron-induced gamma dose from a reactor beam filter for boron neutron capture therapy

For the boron neutron capture therapy (NCT) of deep-seated metastatic melanoma, an epithermal (up to a few keV energy) neutron beam from a reactor horizontal facility could be useful if the inherent contamination from fast neutrons and gamma rays could be minimised. Calculations for ANSTO's 10 MW research reactor HIFAR have shown that, even though a filter material such as AlF3 attenuates the fast neutron dose, the beam quality improvement is counteracted by a relative increase in the gamma dose because of the gammas arising from neutron captures in the filter material, particularly the aluminium. The aluminium gammas, most of which arise from thermal neutron capture, are hard and cannot be attenuated by lead or bismuth without comparable attenuation of the epithermal neutron flux. Addition of an absorber such as 6Li to the AlF3 filter was investigated as a means of reducing the hard gamma dose, but the improvement in beam quality was small and at considerable cost to dose intensity. Dose characteristics calculations confirmed the superiority of a tangential beam over a radial beam with better results from an unfiltered tangential beam than from an AlF3 filter in a radial beam. This study showed conclusively that assessments of filter assemblies based on the effect of individual components on either the neutron or gamma dose in isolation are inadequate. In assessing any epithermal neutron filter, thermal neutron shield, and gamma shield combination, the total effect of each on the neutron, gamma, and boron-10 dose must be considered.