Design of a Small-Animal Thermal Neutron Irradiation Facility at the Brookhaven Medical Research Reactor

The broad beam facility (BBF) at the Brookhaven Medical Research Reactor (BMRR) can provide a thermal neutron beam with flux intensity and quality comparable to the beam currently used for research on neutron capture therapy using cell-culture and small-animal irradiations. Monte Carlo computations were made, first, to compare with the dosimetric measurements at the existing BBF and, second, to calculate the neutron and gamma fluxes and doses expected at the proposed BBF. Multiple cell cultures or small animals could be irradiated simultaneously at the so-modified BBF under conditions similar to or better than those individual animals irradiated at the existing thermal neutron irradiation facility (TNIF) of the BMRR. The flux intensity of the collimated thermal neutron beam at the proposed BBF would be 1.7 × 10¹⁰ n/cm²·s at 3-MW reactor power, the same as at the TNIF. However, the proposed collimated beam would have much lower gamma (0.89 × 10⁻¹¹ cGy·cm²/n_th) and fast neutron (0.58 × 10⁻¹¹ cGy·cm²/n_th) contaminations, 64 and 18% of those at the TNIF, respectively. The feasibility of remodeling the facility is discussed.