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Study of neutron production and moderation for sulfur neutron capture therapy

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Abstract

Neutron capture therapy with Sulfur-33, similar to boron neutron capture therapy with Boron-10, is effective in treating some types of tumors including ocular melanoma. The key point in sulfur neutron capture therapy is whether the neutron beam flux and the resonance capture cross section of \(^{33}\hbox {S(n},\alpha )^{30}\hbox {Si}\) reaction at 13.5 keV can achieve the requirements of radiotherapy. In this research, the authors investigated the production of 13.5 keV neutron production and moderation based on an accelerator neutron source. A lithium glass detector was used to measure the neutron flux produced via near threshold \(^{7}\hbox {Li(p,n)}^{7}\hbox {Be}\) reaction using the time-of-flight method. Furthermore, the moderation effects of different kinds of materials were investigated using Monte Carlo simulation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Nuclear Data, China Institute of Atomic Energy, Beijing, 102413, China

    Meng Peng, Guo-Zhu He, Qi-Wei Zhang, Bin Shi, Hong-Qing Tang & Zu-Ying Zhou

  2. College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha, 410073, China

    Meng Peng

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  1. Meng Peng
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Correspondence to Meng Peng.

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Peng, M., He, GZ., Zhang, QW. et al. Study of neutron production and moderation for sulfur neutron capture therapy. NUCL SCI TECH 30, 2 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41365-018-0529-3

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