Evaluation of the response of a Bonner Sphere Spectrometer with a 6LiI detector using 3D meshed MCNP6.1.1 models

Abstract

Abstract In order to undertake further studies on neutron spectra deconvolution in radiotherapy LinAc bunkers after using high megavolts treatment beams, it has been calculated the theoretical Response Function for a widespread neutron Bonner Sphere Spectrometer (BSS) exposed to arbitrary neutron sources. The neutron response function of the Bonner spectrometer is of essential importance for its neutron spectrum unfolding procedure and is directly related to the quality of the unfolded spectrum. Response detector curves from 10\u202fkeV to 20\u202fMeV have been obtained by Monte Carlo (MC) simulation with MCNP6.1.1, where the use of unstructured mesh geometries is introduced as a novelty. In order to validate the accuracy of the MCNP6 simulation, we have used the detector model to measure an 241Am-Be neutron source, and the obtained neutron counts of the spectrometer and simulated counts are found to be very consistent, with a relative error below 10%. This comparison shows that the estimation of the Bonner sphere neutron response by MCNP6 is highly precise.