• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.143-148
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• 2013

Operational nuclear facilities such as nuclear power plants and particle accelerators show various neutron spectra according to the type of facilities and specific position. Necessities of neutron dose management and neutron monitoring for radiation protection of radiation workers in such a kind of facilities have continuously increased in recent years. Bonner sphere spectrometers are widely used for measurement of neutron spectra. Data on response function of neutron detector, default neutron spectra and count rates of Bonner sphere spectrometer are required to obtain unfolded neutron spectra in specific workplaces. In this study, we carried out measurement of neutron spectra produced in MC50 cyclotron using Bonner sphere spectrometer with LiI scintillation detector. Additionally, we estimated quantitative data on neutron flux, mean neutron energy and ambient dose equivalent rate according to the incident proton energies and positions in MC50 cyclotron.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.155-160
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• 1971

Average and effective energies for 239Pu-Be, 241Am-Li and 241Am-F neutron sources have been calculated from a number of published data for the neutron spectra and for the dose equivalent as a function of neutron energies by a numerical method. Also a calculation of the dose equivalent conversion factors, i. e., the first collision dose equivalent and the surface (or multicollision) dose equivalent that equals the product of surface-absorbed dose and a corresponding quality factor, per unit fluence of neutrons from these sources has been carried out in the same way as before. The results are as follows : 1. for average energies 4.07$\pm$0.33, 0.42 and 1.41 MeV； 2. for effective energies based on the concept of the first collision process in the human body 4.45$\pm$0.344, 0.51 and 1.47 MeV; 3. for effective energies based on the concept of the multi-collision process in the human body 4.50$\pm$0.36, 0.50 and 1.45 MeV； 4. for fluence-first collision dose equivalent conversion factors (2.74$\pm$0.07)10$^{-8}$ , 1.58$\times$ 10$^{-8}$ and 2.34$\times$10$^{-8}$ rems/(n/$\textrm{cm}^2$); and 5. for fluence-surface dose equivalent conversion factors (3.55$\pm$0.09)10$^{-8}$ , 2.19$\times$10$^{-8}$ and 2.82$\times$10$^{-8}$ rems/(n/$\textrm{cm}^2$) : respectively.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.5
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• pp.1723-1729
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• 2021

Energy and directional distribution of neutrons at the Beloyarsk NPP workplaces is a subject of this study. Measurements of H^*(10) rate and neutron energy distribution were taken at 8 workplaces, which can be divided into three categories: work with spent or fresh nuclear fuel, work with radionuclide neutron sources, work at the rooms adjusted to reactors. The Hp(10) measurements were performed only at 6 out of 8 locations, due to the fact that long term placing of an effective neutron moderator in fresh nuclear fuel storage facility is forbidden. As a result of the research energy and direction distribution of the neutron fields at 8 locations of the Beloyarsk NPP workplaces was obtained. To estimate the accuracy of the H^*(10) rate and Hp (10) measurements the reference values of dose equivalents were calculated using energy and directional distribution. To take into account the difference between the reference values and the measured results site-specific correction factors were calculated.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.9
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• pp.3334-3341
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• 2023

We studied the irradiation effects of fast neutron generated by a 30 MeV cyclotron on the electrical and switching characteristics of NPT-IGBT devices. Fast neutron fluence ranges from 2.7 × 10⁹ to 1.82 × 10¹³ n/cm². Electrical characteristics of the IGBT device such as I-V, forward voltage drop and additionally switching characteristics of turn-on and -off were measured. As the neutron fluence increased, the device's threshold voltage decreased, the forward voltage drop increased significantly, and the turn-on and turn-off time became faster. In particular, the delay time of turn-on switching was improved by about 35% to a maximum of about 39.68 ns, and that of turn-off switching was also reduced by about 40%-84.89 ns, showing a faster switching.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.6
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• pp.2276-2282
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• 2023

We deploy artificial neural networks to unfold neutron spectra from measured energy-integrated quantities. These neutron spectra represent an important parameter allowing to compute the absorbed dose and the kerma to serve radiation protection in addition to nuclear safety. The built architectures are inspired from convolutional neural networks. The first architecture is made up of residual transposed convolution's blocks while the second is a modified version of the U-net architecture. A large and balanced dataset is simulated following "realistic" physical constraints to train the architectures in an efficient way. Results show a high accuracy prediction of neutron spectra ranging from thermal up to fast spectrum. The dataset processing, the attention paid to performances' metrics and the hyper-optimization are behind the architectures' robustness.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.47 no.7
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• pp.939-944
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• 2015

The calibration methods of neutron-measuring devices such as the neutron survey meter have advantages and disadvantages. To compare the calibration factors obtained by the shadow cone method and semi-empirical method, 10 neutron survey meters of five different types were used in this study. This experiment was performed at the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI; Daejeon, South Korea), and the calibration neutron fields were constructed using a $^{252}Californium$ ($^{252}Cf$) neutron source, which was positioned in the center of the neutron irradiation room. The neutron spectra of the calibration neutron fields were measured by a europium-activated lithium iodide scintillator in combination with KAERI's Bonner sphere system. When the shadow cone method was used, 10 single moderator-based survey meters exhibited a smaller calibration factor by as much as 3.1-9.3% than that of the semi-empirical method. This finding indicates that neutron survey meters underestimated the scattered neutrons and attenuated neutrons (i.e., the total scatter corrections). This underestimation of the calibration factor was attributed to the fact that single moderator-based survey meters have an under-ambient dose equivalent response in the thermal or thermal-dominant neutron field. As a result, when the shadow cone method is used for a single moderator-based survey meter, an additional correction and the International Organization for Standardization standard 8529-2 for room-scattered neutrons should be considered.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.127-132
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• 1993

Total of 53 patients of unresectable and recurrent rectal cancer treated with neutron beam during the period from Oct.1987 to Apr.1992 were analyzed. Dose fractionation for the neutron only group was 1.5 Gy per fraction,3 fraction per week,21 Gy/41/2 wks for 42 patients out of 53 ($76{\%}$). Neutron only but modified fractionation schedule ($10{\%}$ more or less of total dose) was applied for 9 patients, and mixed beam (neutron boost) was for 4 patients, Complete tumor response was obtained in 40 patients ($76{\%}$, response rate). Local control rate was 28 out of 53 ($53{\%}$). Statistically significant better prognostic factors for local control were age below 49 years old (15/22, $68{\%}$) than above 50 years old (13/31, $42{\%}$), male (20/32, $63{\%}$) than female (8/21, $38{\%}$), tumor size less than 5 cm and non-metastatic (16/24, $67{\%}$) than size more than 5 cm or metastatic (12/29, $41{\%}$). Major complication had developed in 7 patients ($13{\%}$). Two year overall survival rate by Kaplan-Meier method was $30{\%}$, but it was rised to, $47{\%}$ when the turner was less than 5 cm non-metastatic.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.297-311
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• 1996

ANSI decided PMMA slab phantom as a calibration phantom and introduced a conversion coefficient calculation method for it. For photon, the conversion coefficient can be obtained by using backscatter factor and conversion coefficient of the ICRU tissue cube and backscatter factor of the PMMA slab. For neutron, however, the ANSI has not introduced any conversion coefficient calculation method for the PMMA slab. In this work, the ANSI method for the photon conversion coefficient calculation was applied to the neutron conversion coefficient calculation of the PMMA slab. Quality weighted tissue kerma of neutron was applied to calculate the backscatter factors on the ICRU cube and the PMMA slab. The dose conversion coefficient of the ICRU cube was also calculated by using MCNP code. Then, the dose conversion coefficient of the PMMA slab was calculated from two backscatter factors and the dose conversion coefficient of the ICRU cube. The discrepancies of the dose conversion coefficients of the PMMA slab and the ICRU cube were less than 10% except 1eV(20%), 1keV(17%), and 4 MeV(16%).

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1998.05b
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• pp.618-623
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• 1998

A shielding analysis was performed for the end shield of CANDU 6 reactor. The one-dimensional discrete ordinate code ANISN with a 38-group neutron-gamma library, extracted from DLC-37D library, was used to estimate the dose rate for the natural uranium CANDU reactor. For comparison MCNP-4B calculation was performed for the same system using continuous, discrete and multi-group libraries. The comparison has shown that the total dose rate of the ANISN calculation agrees well with that of the MCNP calculation. However, the individual dose rate (neutron and gamma) has shown opposite trends between AMISN and MCNP estimates, which may require a consistent library generation for both codes.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers C
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• v.52 no.12
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• pp.545-552
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• 2003

When a Si PIN diode is exposed to fast neutrons, it results in displacement damage to the Si lattice structure of the diode. Defects induced from structural dislocation become effective recombination centers for carriers which pass through the base of a PIN diode. Hence, increasing the resistivity of the diode decreases the current for the applied forward voltage. This paper involves the development of a neutron sensor based on the phenomena of the displacement effect damaged by neutron exposure. The neutron effect on the semiconductor was analyzed. Several PIN diode arrays with various thickness and cross-section area of the intrinsic layer(I layer) were fabricated. Under irradiation tests with a neutron beam, the manufactured diodes have a good linearity to neutron dose and show that the increase of thickness of I layer and the decrease of cross-section of PIN diodes improve the sensitivity. Newly developed PIN diodes with thicker I layer and various cross section, were retested and then showed the best neutron sensitivity at the condition that the I layer thickness was similar to a side length. On the basis of two test results, final discrete PIN diodes with a rectangular shape were manufactured and the characteristics as neutron detectors were analyzed through the neutron beam test using on-line electronic dosimetry system. Developed PIN diode shows a good linearity as dosimetry in the range of 0 to 1,000cGy(Tissue) and its neutron sensitivity is 13mV/cGy at constant current of 5mA, that is three times higher than that of commercially available neutron detectors. And the device shows little dependency on the orientation of the neutron beam and a considerable stability in annealing test for a long period.