• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Medical Physics Conference
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• 2002.09a
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• pp.157-160
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• 2002

The dosage of intra-operative BNCT using near-threshold $^{7}$ Li(p,n)$^{7}$ Be direct neutrons was evaluated with the calculation method validated with the phantom experiment. The production of both neutrons by near-threshold $^{7}$ Li(p,n)$^{7}$ Be and gamma rays by $^{7}$ Li(p,p'gamma)$^{7}$ Li in a Li target was calculated using Lee's method and their transport in the phantom was calculated with MCNP-4B. As a result, the region satisfying the requirements of the protocol in intra-operative BNCT for brain tumors in Japan was acknowledged to be comparable to present BNCT, for the proton energy of 1.900 MeV for example. A boron-dose enhancer (BDE) introduced in this study to increase $^{10}$ (n,$\alpha$)$^{7}$ Li dose in a living body was effective. The void used to increase doses in deep regions was also valid with the BDE. It was found that intra-operative BNCT using near-threshold $^{7}$ Li(p,n)$^{7}$ Be direct neutrons is feasible.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.57-67
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• 2022

CZT detectors, which are compound semiconductors that have been widely used recently for gamma-ray detection purposes, are difficult to detect neutrons because direct interaction with them does not occur unlike gamma-rays. In this paper, a method of detecting and determining energy levels (fast neutrons and thermal neutrons) of neutrons, in addition of identifying energy and nuclide of gamma-rays, and evaluating gamma dose rates using a CZT semiconductor detector is described. Neutrons may be detected by a secondary photoelectric effect or compton scattering process with a characteristic gamma-ray of 558.6 keV generated by a capture reaction (¹¹³Cd + ¹n → ¹¹⁴Cd + 𝛾) with cadmium (Cd) in the CZT detector. However, in the case of fast neutrons, the probability of capture reaction with cadmium (Cd) is very low, so it must be moderated to thermal neutrons using a moderator and the material and thickness of moderator should be determined in consideration of the portability and detection efficiency of the equipment. Conversely, in the case of thermal neutrons, the detection efficiency decreases due to shielding effect of moderator itself, so additional CZT detector that do not contain moderator must be configured. The CZT detector that does not contain moderator can be used to evaluate energy, nuclide, and gamma dose-rate for gamma-rays. The technology proposed in this paper provides a method for detecting both neutrons and gamma-rays using a CZT detector.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.319-326
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• 2006

A brief review is presented on the ion beam application in science and technology. ion beams are used very effectively in various fields of science and technology, on the basis of advance in accelerator technology and experimental techniques for ion beam utilization. Recent progress in this field is reviewed in terms of the direct ion beam utilization like ion beam analysis, and the utilization of neutrons as secondary particles.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.384-388
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• 2016

Background: For a verification of newly-developed neutron absorbers, one of guidelines on the qualification and acceptance of neutron absorbers is the neutron attenuation test. However, this approach can cause a problem for the qualifications that it cannot distinguish how the neutron attenuates from materials. Materials and Methods: In this study, an estimation method of neutron absorption performances for materials is proposed to detect both direct penetration and back-scattering neutrons. For the verification of the proposed method, MCNP simulations with the experimental system designed in this study were pursued using the polyethylene, iron, normal glass and the vitrified form. Results and Discussion: The results show that it can easily test neutron absorption ability using single absorber model. Also, from simulation results of single absorber and double absorbers model, it is verified that the proposed method can evaluate not only the direct thermal neutrons passing through materials, but also the scattered neutrons reflected to the materials. Therefore, the neutron absorption performances can be accurately estimated using the proposed method comparing with the conventional neutron attenuation test. Conclusion: It is expected that the proposed method can contribute to increase the reliability of the performance of neutron absorbers.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.160-168
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• 1983

About 25 years ago, halfway along the recorded history of the neutron as a separate entity, Korea entered the nuclear age and initiated its own neutron research and development programs. Since that time Korean scientists have taken all possible advantages of the special opportunities offered by the neutron. Scientists the world over, in the Far East, hear East, and the West, have adapted these opportunities to their special needs. These needs are manifested in all phases of modern life, including power generation by nuclear means, food preservation, production of new types of food-bearing plants, commercial uses of activation analysis, irradiations, and isotope production, nuclear medicine, industrial quality control through nuclear measurements, and direct use of neutrons in research in many areas including solid state physics, chemistry, physics, biology, and medicine. Research with neutrons has been successfully conducted using nuclear research reactors of all sizes ranging from the very small (∼10 kilowatts) to the very large(50-100 Megawatts). This speaker has teen associated with nuclear research since 1945 and directly with neutron research since 1957. From this continuous research and development activity, he will report on some of the prospects in the second 50 years of the neutron.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.38 no.5
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• pp.411-416
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• 2006

The Advanced Test Reactor (ATR), at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL), is one of the world's premier test reactors for providing the capability for studying the effects of intense neutron and gamma radiation on reactor materials and fuels. The physical configuration of the ATR, a 4-leaf clover shape, allows the reactor to be operated at different power levels in the comer 'lobes' to allow for different testing conditions for multiple simultaneous experiments. The combination of high flux (maximum thermal neutron fluxes of 1E15 neutrons per square centimeter per second and maximum fast [E>1.0 MeV] neutron fluxes of 5E14 neutrons per square centimeter per second) and large test volumes (up to 122 cm long and 12.7 cm diameter) provide unique testing opportunities. The current experiments in the ATR are for a variety of test sponsors - US government, foreign governments, private researchers, and commercial companies needing neutron irradiation services. There are three basic types of test configurations in the ATR. The simplest configuration is the sealed static capsule, which places the capsule in direct contact with the primary coolant. The next level of experiment complexity is an instrumented lead experiment, which allows for active control of experiment conditions during the irradiation. The most complex experiment is the pressurized water loop, in which the test sample can be subjected to the exact environment of a pressurized water reactor. For future research, some ATR modifications and enhancements are currently planned. This paper provides more details on some of the ATR capabilities, key design features, experiments, and future plans.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.22-28
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• 2013

The skyshine effect is an essential and important phenomenon in the shielding design of the high energy accelerator. In this study, a new estimation method of neutron skyshine was proposed and was verified by comparison with existing methods. The effective dose of secondary neutrons and photons at the locations that was far away from high-energy electron accelerator was calculated using FLUKA and PHITS Monte Carlo code. The transport paths of secondary radiations to reach a long distance were classified as skyshine, direct, groundshine and multiple-shine. The contribution of each classified component to the total effective dose was evaluated. The neutrons produced from the thick copper target irradiated by 10 GeV electron beam was applied as a source term of this transport. In order to evaluate a groundshine effect, the composition of soil on the PAL-XFEL site was considered. At a relatively short distance less than 50 m from the accelerator tunnel, the direct and groundshine components mostly contributed to the total effective dose. The skyshine component was important at a long distance. The evaluated dose of neutron skyshine agreed better with the results using Rindi's formula, which was based on the experimental results at high energy electron accelerator. That also agreed with the estimated dose using the simple evaluation code, SHINE3, within about 20%. The total effective dose, including all components, was 10 times larger than the estimated doses using other methods for this comparison. The influence of multiple-shine path in this evaluation of the estimation method was investigated to be bigger than one of pure skyshine path.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.37-43
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• 1986

Dosimetric quantities for 300 keV neutrons in the ICRU standard tissue sphere were evaluated. The Monte Carlo code NEDEP which performs neutron-photon-charged particles coupled transport was used in the direct estimation of absorbed dose and dose equivalent. Some important quantities calculated are as follows; Deep dose equivalent index $H_{I,d}:1.78{\times}10^{11}\;Sv-cm^2$ Shallow dose equivalent index $H_{I,s}:2.08{\times}10^{-11}\;Sv-cm^2$ Ambient dose equivalent $H^*(0.07):1.7{\times}10^{-11}\;Sv-cm^2$ Ambient dose equivalent $H^*(10):1.78{\times}10^{-11}\;Sv-cm^2$ Effective quality factor $\bar{Q}^*(10):12.4$

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.191-201
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• 1973

For fast neutron spectroscopy in MeV region, a recoil proton telescope detector was designed and constructed so as to increase in detection efficiency without appreciable deterioration in energy resolution by adopting a special type of recoil proton radiator which is a combination of a ring-shaped vertical radiator and a cone-shaped horizontal radiator at a certain geometry. A neutron stopper was built in the detector system to minimize the background due to direct exposure of the Si(Li) detectors to primary incident neutrons. The detection efficiency and the energy resolution calculated at various neutron energies and geometries are given and these characteristics of the detector system were tested by 14.1 MeV neutrons. As the calculation predicted, the relative detection efficiency in case of the combined radiator system is almost 2.2 times of that for a single, ring-shaped vertical radiator system. The calculated energy resolution is 3.7% FWHM, whereas the measured resolution was 3.9% which means resolution broadening of approximately. 30% was resulted by introducing a combined radiator system into the telescope. Increase in background less than 40% was also observed.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.178-183
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• 2007

Neutrons are high LET (linear energy transfer) radiation and cause more damage to the target cells than x-rays or gamma rays. The damage from neutrons is generally considered fatal to a cell and neutrons have a greater tendency to cause cell death through direct interaction on DNA. We performed experiments to measure growth delay ratio and oxygen enhancement ratio (OER) in mouse model system. We inoculated EMT-6 cells to the right hind leg of BALB-c mouse and X-rays and neutron beams were given when the average volume of tumors reached $200-300mm^3$. We irradiated 0, 11, 15.4 Gy of X-ray and 0, 5, 7 Gy of fast neutron beam at normoxic and hypoxic condition. The volume of tumors was measured 3 times per week. In x-ray experiment, growth delay ratio was 1.34 with 11 Gy and 1.33 with 15.4 Gy in normoxic condition compared to in hypoxic condition, respectively. In neutron experiment, growth delay ratio was 0.94 with 5 Gy and 0.98 with 7 Gy, respectively. The OER of neutron beam was 0.97. The neutron beam was more effective than X-ray in the control of hypoxic tumors.