Hiroyuki Nose

Improvement of Three-dimensional Monte Carlo Code PHITS for Heavy Ion Therapy

The general purpose particle and heavy ion transport code, PHITS, was modified for improved analysis of dose distribution in carbon therapy systems. We added two new functions into PHITS, one for an energy dispersion calculation and the other for transport in an AC magnetic field, which enabled 3-dimensional modelling of a carbon therapy system for the first time. With this code we calculated the dose distribution in a carbon therapy system, and these results showed good agreement with experimental data. This improved version of PHITS is a valuable tool for the design of carbon therapy aperture or for the estimation of the dose distribution in treatment planning.

Field size effect of radiation quality in carbon therapy using passive method

The authors have investigated the dependency of radiation quality and absorbed dose on radiation field size in therapeutic carbon beams. The field size of the broad beam, formed using the passive technique, was controlled from 20 to 100 mm per side with a multileaf collimator. The absorbed dose and radiation quality on the beam center were evaluated at several depths in a water phantom using microdosimetric technique in experiments and Monte Carlo simulations. With an increase in the field size, the radiation quality was reduced, although the absorbed dose grew at the center of the field. This indicates that the dose and radiation quality at the center of the broad beam are influenced by particles from the off-center region via large-angle scattering and that such particles have relatively low radiation quality and mainly consist of fragment particles. Because such a tendency appeared to be more remarkable in the deeper region of the water phantom, it is likely that fragment particles that are born in a water phantom have a marked role in determining the field size effect.

Biological dose distribution analysis with microdosimetry; experiment and monte carlo simulation

We investigated biological dose distribution of heavy ion beam with microdosimetry technique in experiment and simulation. In experiment, which was performed at heavy ion medical accelerator in Chiba: HIMAC, we evaluated physical dose and lineal energy or radiation quality distribution with tissue equivalent proportional counter. The counter includes tissue equivalent gas as a detector and has tissue equivalent size of 1 mum, which makes it possible to imitate dosimetry in a region as small as a cell. Also we developed a technique to evaluate lineal energy and biological dose with Monte Carlo simulation. We installed a new feature to model microdosimetry into general purpose transport code named PHITS. We made comparison between experimental and calculation results, and found that PHITS code overestimated biological effect by 20% because of misestimating of energy dispersion in counter, although it estimates physical dose distribution in good agreement.

Two-colored Laser Circulation System for Monochromatic Tunable Hard X-ray Source

A two-colored laser pulse circulation system for a monochromatic tunable hard X-ray source via laser electron Compton scattering is investigated. The demonstration system of the X-ray source is under construction at the University of Tokyo. It consists of the X-band (11.424 GHz) electron linear accelerator and two Nd: YAG laser systems. The main advantage of this system is a monochromatic tunable hard X-ray. It is calculated that the X-ray intensity will be about 108 photons/s. In order to enhance the X-ray intensity for medical applications such as dual energy X-ray CT, a two-colored laser pulse circulation system has been designed. The laser pulse circulation experiment without an electron beam has been carried out by using a Nd: YAG laser fundamental wave (50 mJ) and a second harmonics wave (25 mJ). The result shows that the X-ray intensity can be enhanced by a factor of 10 times higher (i.e., up to 109 photons/s). This work is a part of the JST (Japan Science and Technology Agency) project. The entire X-ray source system is a part of a larger national project on the development of an advanced compact medical accelerator sponsored by the NIRS (National Institute for Radiological Science). The University of Tokyo and KEK are responsible for the X-ray source.

Shielding performance of newly developed boron-loaded concrete for DT neutrons

ABSTRACT In order to enhance the neutron-shielding performance of concrete in neutron-generation facilities from the viewpoint of reduction of effective dose rates in operation and radioactive wastes in decommission, we developed concrete with boron of more than 10 wt%. We performed a neutron-shielding experiment using the mockup of the newly developed boron-loaded concrete and Deuterium Tritium (DT)neutrons at the Fusion Neutronics Source in the Japan Atomic Energy Agency, and measured the reaction rates of 93Nb(n,2n)92mNb and 197Au(n,γ)198Au reactions in the mockup. The calculations were conducted using MCNP-5.14 and FENDL-2.1. The calculation results agreed well with the measured ones, and we confirmed that the accuracy was very good on the atomic composition data of boron-loaded concrete and their nuclear data. In addition, we calculated the neutron and photon effective dose rates and reaction rates of 59Co(n,γ)60Co and 151Eu(n,γ)152Eu reactions, which produce critical radioisotopes in decommission, in boron-loaded concrete and other concretes with DT neutrons, and the experimental condition presently used. The dose rates and reaction rates were drastically reduced by using boron-loaded concrete and it was concluded that boron-loaded concrete had very good shielding performance for DT neutrons.