Assessment of the neutron radiation field with activation foils and intermittent irradiations around a PETtrace biomedical cyclotron

J A Benavente-Castillo; M A S Lacerda; A V Ferreira; H M Dalle; T A Da Silva

doi:10.1016/j.apradiso.2019.108823

Assessment of the neutron radiation field with activation foils and intermittent irradiations around a PETtrace biomedical cyclotron

Appl Radiat Isot. 2019 Nov:153:108823. doi: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2019.108823. Epub 2019 Jul 26.

Authors

J A Benavente-Castillo¹, M A S Lacerda², A V Ferreira², H M Dalle², T A Da Silva²

Affiliations

¹ Departamento de Engenharia Nuclear, DEN, Programa de Pós-graduação em Ciências e Técnicas Nucleares, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, UFMG, Av. Antônio Carlos, 6627, Pampulha, CEP: 31270-901, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil; Centro de Desenvolvimento da Tecnologia Nuclear, CDTN, Av. Presidente Antônio Carlos, 6627, Pampulha, CEP: 31270-901, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil. Electronic address: jhonnybenavente@gmail.com.
² Centro de Desenvolvimento da Tecnologia Nuclear, CDTN, Av. Presidente Antônio Carlos, 6627, Pampulha, CEP: 31270-901, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil.

PMID: 31400649
DOI: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2019.108823

Abstract

This work aimed at assessing the neutron radiation field with activation foils around of the PETtrace biomedical cyclotron. Activation foils of gold, gold covered with cadmium, indium and nickel was used to evaluate the thermal, epithermal and fast neutron contributions, respectively. The irradiations of the activation foils were performed using the intermittent irradiation method to conciliate the measurements with the routine ¹⁸F production. The evaluated points showed the contributions of the thermal, epithermal and fast neutrons due to interaction with the vault room, cyclotron accelerator and main cyclotron components.

Keywords: Activation foils; Intermittent irradiation; Neutron activation analysis; PET cyclotron.

MeSH terms

Neutrons*
Positron-Emission Tomography*
Synchrotrons*