• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.421-422
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• 2011

The first part is about development of a liquid target for a neutron source, which is designed to overcome many of the limitations of traditional beam-target neutron generators by utilizing a liquid target neutron source. One of the most critical aspects of the beam-target neutron generator is the target integrity under the beam exposure. A liquid target can be a good solution to overcome damage to the target such as target erosion and depletion of hydrogen isotopes in the active layer, especially for the one operating at high neutron fluxes with no need for water cooling. There is no inherent target lifetime for the liquid target neutron generator when used with continuous refreshment of the target surface exposed to the energetic beam. In this work, liquid target containing hydrogen has been developed and tested in vacuum environment. Potentially, liquid targets could allow a point neutron source whose spatial extension is on the order of 1 to $10{\mu}m$. And the second is about the vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) spectrometer which is designed as a five-channel spectral system for ITER main plasma measurement. To develop and verify the design, a two-channel prototype system was fabricated with No. 3 (14.4 nm~31.8 nm) and No. 4 (29.0 nm~60.0 nm) among the five channels. For test of the prototype system, a hollow cathode lamp is used as a light source. The system is composed of a collimating mirror to collect the light from source to slit, and two holographic diffraction gratings with toroidal geometry to diffract and also to collimate the light from the common slit to detectors. The two gratings are positioned at different optical distances and heights as designed. To study the appropriate detector for ITER VUV system, two different electronic detectors of the back-illuminated charge coupled device and the micro-channel plate electron multiplier were installed and the performance has been investigated and compared in the same experimental conditions. The overall system performance was verified by measuring the spectrums.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.586-586
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• 2012

The vuv spectrometer for ITER main plasma measurement is designed as a five-channel spectral system. To develop and verify the design, a two-channel prototype system was fabricated with No. 3 (14.4-31.8 nm) and No. 4 (29.0-60.0 nm) among the five channels. For test of the prototype system, a hollow cathode lamp is used as a light source. The system is composed of a collimating mirror to collect the light from source to slit, and two holographic diffraction gratings with toroidal geometry to diffract and also to collimate the light from the common slit to detectors. The overall system performance was verified by comparing the measured spectral resolutions with the calculated spectral resolutions. And we also have developed liquid jet target system. This study is about a neutron generator, which is designed to overcome many of the limitations of traditional beam-target neutron generators by utilizing a liquid target. One of the most critical aspects of the beam-target neutron generator is the target integrity under the beam exposure. A liquid target can be a good solution to overcome damage to the target such as target erosion and depletion of hydrogen isotopes in the active layer, especially for the ones operating at high neutron fluxes and maintained relatively thin with no need for water cooling. In this study, liquid target containing hydrogen has been developed and tested.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.333-335
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• 2001

The 2 GeV electron linac, the injector of the Pohang Light Source, was used as a photo-neutron source for radiation shielding research. The operational beam parameters are the nominal electron intensity of $0.5\;{\sim}5\;nC/sec$, the repetition rate of 10 Hz, and the beam pulse length of 1.0 nsec. One electron beam line was modified in order to install the target systems for producing pulsed photo-neutrons. The neutron spectrum and intensity were investigated by the time-of-flight technique. The reliable maximum energy of the measured neutrons was about 500 MeV. The number of neutrons above 20 MeV produced by one 1 GeV electron in a thick Pb target was about $6.45{\times}10^{-4}/sr$ at 90 degrees to the beam axis. The status of the photo-neutron source and the application research are presented.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.2
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• pp.437-441
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• 2022

In this study, we developed a neutron time-of-flight (nTOF) measurement system for a 1.7-MV tandem proton accelerator with a target covered with 300-nm-thick lithium (Li) layer. With implementation of beam chopping module after its ion source, the accelerator is configured to operate in pulsed-beam mode with a pulse width <50 ns at 20-kHz repetition rate. This enables the gamma flash-type nTOF measurement system to identify the neutron generated with 3-MeV proton beam energy. The nTOF system consists of a 30" cylindrical NaI(Tl) and four stilbene scintillation detectors. The NaI(Tl) scintillator is placed 50 cm from the Li target to measure the time of beam irradiation on the target, and the stilbene detectors are placed 2 and 2.4 m away to measure nTOF at each location. The nTOF system successfully measured the generated neutron energy at irradiated proton energies of 2.6 and 3.0 MeV with an average energy resolution of 15%.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.7
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• pp.1355-1366
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• 2020

A review of the documentation and an interpretation of the NEA-1517/74 and NEA-1517/80 shielding benchmarks (measurements of photon leakage flux from a hollow sphere with a central 14 MeV neutron source) from the SINBAD database with the Monte Carlo code MCS and the most up-to-date ENDF/B-VIII.0 neutron data library are conducted. The two analyzed benchmarks describe satisfactorily the energy resolution of the photon detector and the geometry of the spherical samples with inner beam tube, tritium target and cooling water circuit, but lack information regarding the detector geometry and the distances of shields and collimators relatively to the neutron source and the detector. Calculations are therefore conducted for a sphere model only. A preliminary verification of MCS neutron-photon calculations against MCNP6.2 is first conducted, then the impact of modelling the inner beam tube, tritium target and cooling water circuit is assessed. Finally, a comparison of calculated results with the libraries ENDF/B-VII.1 and ENDF/B-VIII.0 against the measurements is conducted and shows reasonable agreement. The MCS and MCNP inputs used for the interpretation are available as supplementary material of this article.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.5
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• pp.1813-1821
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• 2024

Beam shaping assembly (BSA) is a vital component in Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT) for obtaining epithermal neutron beams. Several feasible designs of BSA for accelerator-based BNCT (AB-BNCT) neutron source are carried out based on neutrons by bombarding a natural lithium target with 10 mA, 2.8 MeV proton beams. The calculation results demonstrate that a thickness of 45 cm is appropriate for general moderators referring to the therapeutic parameter of Advanced Depth (AD). A series of optimizations are performed and two results are confirmed: One is that employing the configuration of MgF₂ and FLUENTAL combined by 1:1 could improve the therapeutic rate (TR) of tumors at a depth of middle region, and the other one is that the TR of superficial tumors can be increased by adding a 5 cm thick boron-11 secondary moderator at the end of general moderators. As a result, an innovative conception of an adjustable moderator is recommended to BNCT. Compared to the MgF₂ moderator with a fixed thickness of 45 cm, the TR value can be improved by a maximum of 47.7 % by using the adjustable moderator. Furthermore, the configuration of adjustable moderator has been designed with regulation method for treating tumors of different depths.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.6
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• pp.1970-1978
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• 2021

The aim of this study was to optimize the target, moderator, and collimator (TMC) in a neutron beam generator for the accelerator-based BNCT (A-BNCT) system. The optimization employed the Monte Carlo Neutron and Photon (MCNP) simulation. The optimal geometry for the target was decided as the one with the highest neutron flux among nominates, which were called as angled, rib, and tube in this study. The moderator was optimized in terms of consisting material to produce appropriate neutron energy distribution for the treatment. The optimization of the collimator, which wrapped around the target, was carried out by deciding the material to effectively prevent the leakage radiations. As results, characteristic of the neutron beam from the optimized TMC was compared to the recommendation by the International Atomic Energy Agent (IAEA). The tube type target showed the highest neutron flux among nominates. The optimal material for the moderator and collimator were combination of Fluental (Al₂0₃+AlF₃) with ⁶⁰Ni filter and lead, respectively. The optimized TMC satisfied the IAEA recommendations such as the minimum production rate of epithermal neutrons from thermal neutrons: that was 2.5 times higher. The results can be used as source terms for shielding designs of treatment rooms.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.39-47
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• 2021

Background: The National Institutes for Quantum and Radiological Science and Technology-National Institute of Radiological Sciences (QST-NIRS) has continuously investigated the undesired radiation exposure in ion beam radiotherapy mainly in carbon-ion radiotherapy (CIRT). This review introduces our investigations on the secondary neutron dose in CIRT with the broad and scanning beam methods. Materials and Methods: The neutron ambient dose equivalents in CIRT are evaluated based on rem meter (WENDI-II) measurements. The out-of-field organ doses assuming prostate cancer and pediatric brain tumor treatments are also evaluated through the Monte Carlo simulation. This evaluation of the out-of-field dose includes contributions from secondary neutrons and secondary charged particles. Results and Discussion: The measurements of the neutron ambient dose equivalents at a 90#x00B0; angle to the beam axis in CIRT with the broad beam method show that the neutron dose per treatment dose in CIRT is lower than that in proton radiotherapy (PRT). For the scanning beam with the energy scanning technique, the neutron dose per treatment dose in CIRT is lower than that in PRT. Moreover, the out-of-field organ doses in CIRT decreased with distance to the target and are less than the lower bound in intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) shown in AAPM TG-158 (American Association of Physicists in Medicine Task Group). Conclusion: The evaluation of the out-of-field doses is important from the viewpoint of secondary cancer risk after radiotherapy. Secondary neutrons are the major source in CIRT, especially in the distant area from the target volume. However, the dose level in CIRT is similar or lower than that in PRT and IMRT, even if the contributions from all radiation species are included in the evaluation.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2001.06d
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• pp.915-920
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• 2001

A spent fuel problem has prevented the nuclear power from claiming to be a completely clean energy source. The nuclear transmutation technology to incinerate the long lived radioactive nuclides and produce energy during the incineration process is believed to be one or the best solutions. HYPER(Hybrid Power Extraction Reactor) is the accelerator driven transmutation system which is being developed by KAERI(Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute). Some major feature of HYPER have been developed and employed. On-power fueling concepts are employed to keep system power constant with minimum variation of accelerator power. A hollow cylinder-type metal fuel is designed for the on-line refueling concept. Lead-bismuth(Pb-Bi) is adopted as a coolant and Spallation target material. HYPER is a subcritical reactor which needs an external neutron source. 1GeV proton beam is irradiated to Lead-bismuth(Pb-Bi) target inside HYPER, and spallation neutrons are produced. When proton beams are irradiated, much heat is also deposited in the Pb-Bi target and beam window which separates Pb-Bi and accelerator vacuum. Therfore, an effective cooling is needed for HYPER target. In this paper, we performed the thermal-hydraulic analysis of HYPER target using FLUENT code, and also calculated thermal and mechanical stress of the beam window using ANSYS code.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.360-367
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• 2016

A windowless spallation target can provide a neutron source and maintain neutron chain reaction for a subcritical reactor, and is a key component of China's nuclear waste transmutation of coupling accelerator and subcritical reactor. The main issue of the windowless target design is to form a stable and controllable free surface that can ensure that energy spectrum distribution is acquired for the neutron physical design when the high energy proton beam beats the lead-bismuth eutectic in the spallation target area. In this study, morphology and flow characteristics of the free surface of the windowless target were analyzed through the volume of fluid model using computational fluid dynamics simulation, and the results show that the outlet cross section size of the target is the key to form a stable and controllable free surface, as well as the outlet with an arc transition. The optimization parameter of the target design, in which the radius of outlet cross section is $60{\pm}1mm$, is verified to form a stable and controllable free surface and to reduce the formation of air bubbles. This work can function as a reference for carrying out engineering design of windowless target and for verification experiments.