In 2001, at the TRIGA reactor of the University of Pavia (Italy), a patient suffering from diffuse liver metastases from an adenocarcinoma of the sigmoid was successfully treated by boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT). The procedure involved boron infusion prior to hepatectomy, irradiation of the explanted liver at the thermal column of the reactor, and subsequent reimplantation. A complete re...

Nmi multilayers are used as supermirrors for neutron guides. These multilayers are submitted to neutron irradiation. In order to determine the effect of irradiation on supermirrors performances we studied Ni/'Ti multilayers irradiated with thermal neutrons. We present here the results obtained by neutron reflectivity, X-ray diffraction and EXAFS on one sample. It has been found that the supermi...

The energy spectrum of fission neutrons in the biological irradiation field of the Kinki University reactor, UTR-KINKI, has been determined by a multi-foil activation analysis coupled with artificial neural network techniques and a Au-foil activation method. The mean neutron energy was estimated to be 1.26 +/- 0.05 MeV from the experimentally determined spectrum. Based on this energy value and ...

PURPOSE We have been developing a fast-neutron spectroscopic technique to quantitatively image the distribution of elements in the body using quasi-monochromatic neutron beams. Previously, we demonstrated the ability of the technique to quantify specific elements in the liver and breast while limiting radiation dose to clinically acceptable levels. Here we present the results of a physical dose...

Tentative design and implementation of an irradiation facility are described, which will add a 14 MeV component to the neutron spectrum in a thermal research reactor irradiation facility. The idea is to exploit the Li(n,T)He reaction in a blanket of lithium in a deuterated environment, placed in a thermal reactor irradiation channel. Existing literature describing similar devices is reviewed, t...

Introduction BNCT is an effective method to destroy brain tumoral cells while sparing the healthy tissues. The recommended flux for epithermal neutrons is 109 n/cm2s, which has the most effectiveness on deep-seated tumors. In this paper, it is indicated that using D-T neutron source and optimizing of Beam Shaping Assembly (BSA) leads to treating brain tumors in a reasonable time where all IAEA ...

Until now, the multiple biological effects of ionizing radiation on liver have been reported. However, there has not been any reports of fast neutron-mediated liver injuries including liver regeneration or fibrosis. Here, we described the biological effects of acute fast neutron irradiation on the liver. After the fast neutron irradiation of 0, 0.25, 1, 2, 4 and 8 Gy on mice, hepatocyte necrosi...