High-energy neutron dosimetry

Fluence-to-dose conversion coefficients for the radiation protection quantity effective dose were calculated for neutrons, photons and protons with energies up to 2 GeV using the MCNPX code. The calculations were performed using the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory versions of the MIRD-V male and female anthropomorphic phantoms modified to include the skin and esophagus. The latest high-energy neutron evaluated cross-section libraries and the recommendations given in ICRP Publication 60 and ICRP Publication 74 were utilized to perform the calculations. Sets of fluence-to-effective dose conversion coefficients are given for anterior-posterior, posterior-anterior, left-lateral, right-lateral and rotational irradiation geometries. This is the first set of dose conversion coefficients over this energy range calculated for the L-LAT irradiation geometry.; A unique set of high-energy neutron depth-dose benchmark experiments were performed at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center/Weapons Neutron Research (LANSCE/WNR) complex. The experiments consisted of filtered neutron beams with energies up to 800 MeV impinging on a 30 x 30 x 30 cm3 tissue-equivalent phantom. The absorbed dose was measured in the phantom at various depths with tissue-equivalent ion chambers. The phantom and the experimental set-up were modeled using MCNPX. Comparisons of the experimental and computational depth-dose distributions indicate that the absorbed dose calculated by MCNPX is within 13% for neutrons with energies up to 750 MeV. This experiment will serve as a benchmark experiment for the testing of high-energy radiation transport codes for the international radiation protection community.