Experimental Measurement of Secondary Neutrons on Particle Accelerators

Abstract

A newly developed fast digital spectrometer for neutron spectroscopy is presented. The pulse shape discrimination (PSD) performance of the spectrometer has been evaluated within two experiments with different neutron energies. The experimental measurements of secondary neutrons were carried out in the laboratory of the Van de Graaff accelerator and at the Proton Therapy Center in Prague. For both experiments, a liquid scintillator detector BC-501A (NE-213) was used. The results of experiments demonstrate the very good quality of the PSD discrimination of the spectrometer. The experimental spectra of secondary neutrons were compared with spectra obtained by means Monte Carlo simulations. The detector response matrix and the flux of secondary neutrons and protons in the vicinity of irradiated proton therapy phantom were calculated using Monte Carlo simulations.